 
### Hearts Aflame Collection II: 4-Book Bundle

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014 by Melissa F. Hart. All rights reserved worldwide.

No part of this book may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written consent of the author/publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

<http://www.melissafhart.com/>

***

Table of Contents

Wolf Problem

Eden Rising \- Part 1

New Moon

Taming Suzanna

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Wolf Problem

***

Synopsis

Life in the small town of Broken Wheel, Wyoming tends to be a little predictable...until Sheriff's Deputy Jade Lundgren is assigned to deal with the "wolf problem." Now that wolves have been taken off the endangered species list, people are divided as to whether the wolves should be protected, destroyed, or simply left alone. Tasked with controlling the escalating tensions, Jade finds herself trying to make sense of seemingly unrelated crimes, while juggling her feelings for local rancher, Harlan Winters, and the mysterious, Irish wildlife biologist, Conall O'Faolán.

***

"Jade!"

Sheriff Wilson Page's raspy baritone bounced off the faded red brick walls of the Broken Wheel Sheriff's Department as he hung up the telephone. He always sounded a little like he was yelling, but it had more to do with being a big man in a cramped office on the second floor of the former Harrow Hill Seed Company than with the fact that he was actually shouting. Since the mayor, the county clerk, and the entire Chamber of Commerce shared the first floor, the deputies put up with the poor acoustics and felt lucky to have space for a few desks, a gun locker, and a holding cell.

"I'm right here, Wilson." Jade's long ash blonde ponytail bounced on her back as she turned from the filing cabinet with a manila folder in her hand.

"I need you to go out to the Winters' place. Carson is hoppin' mad."

Jade tried to stifle a sigh; Carson was the father of her sometime suitor, Harlan, and she could guess at the reason the rancher was worked up. "This have anything to do with the wolf problem?"

Wilson rolled his eyes a little. "What do you think?" The sheriff drummed his fingers restlessly on the desk as he stared out the window. "Seems some of our new friends from out of town have been up to more than a little mischief. Go see what you can find out—take pictures, we need to document everything." Spinning his creaky desk chair back to face Jade, he added, "I think I need you on the wolf problem full time."

"Guess this means I'm canceling lunch with Nicolette at the Brown Buffalo Café."

"'Fraid so." He gave Jade a tight smile that she knew meant he was taking the escalating conflict in town seriously. "My daughter will wait. The Broken Wheel Gazette hasn't had headlines this juicy since Cleave Masterson got drunk and went joyriding on Jim Lassiter's stand-up mower." Jade couldn't help but snicker at the memory of arresting Cleave for DUI...on a lawnmower, and the hilarious story Nicolette had written for the Gazette. "I'll call Nicolette and take the blame, but you gals will have to make another date to paint your toenails and talk about boys."

"In case you hadn't noticed, we're not in junior high anymore." Jade arched an eyebrow playfully.

"Oh, I know. I just choose to ignore the fact that you gals are grown women. Now get on out to the Winters."

Nodding, Jade jammed the manila folder in her hand back into the file drawer, grabbed a digital camera from her desk, and pulled her tan canvas jacket off the back of her chair. Double- checking the gun holster on her belt, she called back over her shoulder, "I'll radio once I've got a handle on things."

Wilson waved her off, "Sounds good, in the meantime, I've got to see if Dougie has figured out whether that dumbass meth head blew himself up along with that trailer last night."

Rural Wyoming—not exactly exotic, Jade thought as she made her way out to her beat-up Bronco emblazoned with a gold star and "Broken Wheel Sheriff's Department" on the door. Their crimes tended to be predictable: theft, drugs, domestic disputes, and the occasional assault and battery, most of which could be attributed to boredom and/or booze. The so-called "wolf problem" was injecting a whole new dynamic, though; militant environmental activists had taken up residence at Broken Wheel's one and only motel, the Hidden Springs Inn, to protest the hunting and trapping of wolves. And then there were the local jackasses fueling the fire by bragging about how many of these "nuisances" they were going to take down, now that wolves were no longer on the endangered species list for Wyoming. Biggy Lemmons and his cousin Frank were the ringleaders, trying to get everyone to believe that the handful of wolves in the neighborhood were wreaking havoc on the local cattle herds, as well as the big game like elk. Jade's studied opinion was that Biggy and Frank were just mean sons of bitches who enjoyed killing for the sake of killing.

The snow-capped peaks of the Grand Tetons soared up majestically in the distance, and fields of purple heather trailed along the road as Jade headed out to the Winters' ranch. The noise of the Bronco rumbling up the unpaved road startled a few head of pronghorn antelope that quickly bounded away, and another mile along, she caught sight of a small herd of bison that merely lifted their shaggy heads to take note of the interloper before resuming their grazing. Jade smiled; maybe human life in Wyoming wasn't very exotic, but she certainly couldn't fault her spacious backyard for a lack of beauty.

At the turn-off to the Winters' ranch, Jade reminded herself that Harlan was likely to be there with his father, and she tried to assess how that made her feel. It wasn't like Harlan was a novelty; they'd grown up together and the fact was, they had—predictably—lost their virginity together the night of Senior Prom. After six weeks of awkward public hand-holding and shared banana splits at the local Dairy Breeze, he'd gone off to Montana State in Bozeman to get a degree in Livestock Management, and she'd headed to Colorado Springs to study Criminal Justice. In the interim, they'd been involved with other people, but now they were both pushing thirty, and still single, which meant—predictably—that everyone, including her best friend, Nicolette, and Harlan's father, Carson, thought they were perfect for each other. Everyone, it seemed, except for her, and maybe Harlan.

It wasn't like there was anything terribly wrong with her old flame. Harlan was a lean, lanky westerner, a steady guy with a lopsided grin, bangs that flopped in his eyes, and friendly blue eyes. He was the kind of person you'd find building a wheelchair ramp for someone's grandma, or out delivering Christmas hams to needy families—a good guy, from a good family. Jade sighed. Maybe she didn't feel any spark simply because he was so...predictable. Maybe, just once, what she really needed was something truly surprising to happen to her love life.

Two Australian Shepherds bounded toward Jade as she opened the Bronco's door, and an old hound stood up on the porch, yawning as he stretched and shook himself. She laughed as the Aussies tried to herd her toward the steps. Just then, the front door flung open and Carson Winters stepped out.

"Harlan!" Carson called back into the house, "Wilson did us the favor of sending not only his smartest deputy, but the prettiest one, too!"

Jade cringed a little, trying to ignore Carson's lack of subtlety. "I heard you had some trouble out here. What's going on?"

Carson stepped down from the porch, signaling the Aussies to stand down, as the old hound pressed against Jade's leg with doleful eyes, wanting his head to be scratched. She obliged.

"These dogs will worry you senseless," Carson said with feigned gruffness as he pushed back a few renegade hanks of white hair with one hand, "Of course they were the ones that tipped us off that we had trespassers. Old Sargent there got a good mouthful of pant leg." He chuckled, "He'd never bite anybody, but he scared the bejeezus out of 'em. Grown men screaming like little girls."

"Hey, Jade." Harlan stepped out of the house with a slightly embarrassed smile, "Dad, why don't we show Jade the damage? I'm sure she's got better things to do than to stand around listening to us jaw on about things."

Carson pretended to check the time on his watch. "I better go drop hay out in the west pasture. You can show Jade what the little bastards did." He winked knowingly at Jade, "You two don't need me gumming up the works."

Harlan watched his father for a moment as the older man steamed toward the barn. "My dad..." he paused self-consciously as he turned back to Jade.

Jade put on her best deputy persona, "Don't worry about it. Let's go see what the little bastards did before Sargent got ahold of them."

The most obvious act of vandalism was the spray painted graffiti marring the pristine white clapboard along one side of the house. Someone had scrawled in huge red letters, "Ranchers are Murderers," and "The Big Bad Wolf is going to blow your house up!"

A chill ran up Jade's spine as she snapped pictures. This was something more than frivolous scribbling. She put her camera down. "We've got to treat this as a serious threat."

Harlan twisted his mouth, thinking, before slowly nodding. "Dad...he's just pissed off because he's got to deal with the insurance adjustor. And we lost two young steers." He pointed toward a section of fence that had clearly been flattened and was now propped up. "But there's something...creepy about all this. We've never minded the wolves. They keep the rodent population down, and we've never seen that they have much impact on what anyone around here is doing. Why would someone target us?"

"Good question." Jade rubbed her chin. "Maybe someone wants people to get pissed off at the activists."

"Maybe."

They walked across the field toward the damaged fence, and Jade snapped some more pictures. "Did you or your dad get a look at how many there were?"

"Nah. By the time we got our pants on and were out of our rooms, all we could hear was some yelling. I've got the piece of cloth Sargent ripped off back inside."

"Good." Jade turned, scanning the horizon. "I'm going to have a look around, see if I can find anything else."

Harlan pushed a loose strand of Jade's hair back over her ear. "I can make some fresh coffee while you're doing that."

Jade couldn't help but soften to Harlan's crooked smile and gentle touch. "That'd be nice. I won't be long."

As Harlan walked back toward the house, Jade watched him over her shoulder. Harlan's worn blue jeans rode low on his slim hips, and he had the slight bow in his stride that told you he spent a lot of time on horseback. And, she admitted, he had a butt any girl would drool over. He was kind, good-looking, emotionally and financially stable, everything a woman could want in a man, so why wasn't she more enthusiastic about the idea of snagging him? Was it just a case of familiarity breeding contempt? Maybe she did have unrealistic expectations, maybe Nicolette was right: perhaps Harlan was the perfect man for her and she was being a total idiot. But if Harlan was so perfect, why was Nicolette's head spinning over the new fox in town, Nate? Jade took a deep breath. It was not the time to be pondering her screwed up love life. Right now, she needed to figure out who'd been on the Winters' property, why, and if there was some kind of credible threat.

Wandering toward the nearby hills, Jade thought about the wolves. As an officer of the law, she had to publically remain neutral about "the wolf problem," the controversy that evolved after the wolves were removed from the endangered species list for the state. In her heart, though, she was glad the wolves were back in Wyoming. They were regal, elegant, creatures that had as much right to be there as any human did, perhaps more. And the fact that a handful of people like Biggy and Frank were slaughtering them at every opportunity made her stomach turn. It didn't help that the new state laws were confusing; depending on the time of year and where they were in Wyoming, wolves could be hunted with and without a license, shot on sight as predators, or protected because they were within a national park. The thing that worried Jade was that hunting was the reason wolves had become endangered in the first place, and bloodthirsty goons like Biggy and Frank could care less about maintaining breeding pair quotas and other nuances of the law.

Squatting down, Jade idly poked at the ground with a finger as she tried to think like the vandals to determine which way they might have gone. The dry scrubby grass made tracking difficult, and the nearest road access north of the ranch was at least a couple of miles away. It was possible they had walked in, but Jade kept feeling like she was missing something. Then she heard a short bark-howl, the kind of vocalization that a wolf makes to warn other wolves. She stood up quickly, just in time to see a bushy tail disappear behind a cluster of rocks on the hillside. Maybe, she thought, the wolves would do a good job of taking care of themselves.

Unable to resist the urge to get a better look at what had to be the pack's leader, Jade slowly walked in the direction that the tail had disappeared, catching the sound of faint yips drifting toward her from the distance. She smiled to herself; the wolves were probably long gone by now, and with the likes of Biggy and Frank around, they were smart to keep their distance from humans. All the same, she couldn't help but throw her head back in a commiserating howl.

"Do ye do that often?"

Jade whirled at the astonishing sound of an Irish accent, her cheeks burning with embarrassment, even as she tried not to let on how much the man had startled her. It was seldom that someone ever got the drop on her, but he had seemingly materialized out of thin air. She stammered, trying to collect herself.

"I—I—I saw a wolf, and...you know, uh...." Jade had no idea how to explain her demented howling to the sexy dark-haired Irishman observing her with a slightly tilted head.

He blinked slowly as he absently rubbed the close-cropped scruff covering his jaw with the back of his hand. His piercing eyes were an unusual and arresting amber color, and he had a sensuous mouth and angular cheekbones. A little more than six feet tall, his body was toned and muscular without being bulky. He had broad shoulders and a trim waist. Everything about him seemed designed to make Jade want to start ripping off their clothes. Finally, Jade thought, something absolutely surprising had arrived in Broken Wheel, and all she'd managed to do was make a complete ass of herself.

"I do know." He extended his hand, "Conall O'Faolán. I'm a wildlife biologist. The wolves ye just heard? They're my pack."

"Your...pack?" Jade stood there, a little stupefied. There was something wolfish about him, she thought, but her heart was thumping so hard she couldn't make sense of what he was saying.

A smile crept across Conall's inviting lips, "The pack...I'm studying."

Jade tried to shake off the spell of his amber eyes, "Yes, yes, of course, I'm sorry. I'm a little preoccupied with a case I'm working." She shook his hand, "I'm Jade Lundgren...Deputy Jade Lundgren, Broken Wheel Sheriff's Department."

"Yes, I can see that....the uniform...with the insignia...and the gun, it's a bit of a tell."

Unsure of whether the Irishman was making fun of her or just teasing her a little, Jade slipped into her official mode. "You know that you're on private property?"

"Mr. Winters is quite aware of my activities. In fact, he was quite happy to give me permission to work on his property—he understands the role the wolves play in keeping the local ecology in balance."

Jade wondered whether Conall meant Carson or Harlan, but she supposed it didn't matter. Both of the Winter men would know about everything going on at their ranch. Ever since Harlan's mom had passed unexpectedly two years before, ranching business occupied most of their attention. She could relate to the way grief finds its outlets. When a drunken driver killed her own parents, she decided to devote her life to catching bad guys.

"So...Mr. O'Faolán...are you aware that the Winters had some trouble last night?"

"The graffiti, yes...and the fence. I saw it early this morning."

"You have any idea who might want to do that? See anything unusual?" Jade flipped out her notebook and took a pen from her jacket pocket.

"Clearly someone who doesn't know the Winters' view on the wolves." The edge of Conall's mouth began to curl again, "Deputy Lundgren, am I a suspect?"

Jade squirmed a little, and to her chagrin, she could see that Conall was suppressing a laugh. What was it about this guy that was keeping her so off-balance? It was all she could do to not stamp her foot in frustration. Squaring her shoulders, Jade tried her best to sound authoritative.

"Not at the present, but I need to know how to reach you. Are you staying at the Hidden Springs Inn by any chance?"

"What, with that bunch of useless sooskins who think they are saving the world? Hardly. I'm camped in an abandoned cabin, about two miles that way—in the BLM lands. There's no mobile signal, but if you need me, perhaps ye could just howl."

This time, Conall's expression gave no hint that he was joking, and Jade could feel her cheeks heating up again. She snapped her notebook shut, "Then you should be wearing blaze orange, Mr. O'Faolán. The Bureau of Land Management acreage is open to the public, and I wouldn't want to find you on the wrong end of a hunter's shot gun."

"Not to worry Deputy, I can handle me self. I've been doing it for the greater part of thirty-five years."

"I'd appreciate it if you'd let the Sheriff's Department know if you see anything illegal or suspicious going on."

"Of course. I'm sure the Winters would be happy to loan me the use of their telephone."

Jade nodded in agreement, and started to head back toward the Winters' house when Conall stopped her with a barely perceptible touch to her hand. Compelled to turn, Jade saw something different in the biologist's expression, something profoundly sad. His voice softened to a murmur as his fingertips whispered across the curve of her face, "Did you know, Deputy Lundgren...your eyes...they're the exact shade of green as that of some wolves?"

***

The strange encounter with Conall left Jade feeling a little breathless. She held the mug of hot coffee in both her hands, trying to steady her nerves—unwillingly to let Harlan see her so out of sorts. He didn't seem to notice anything amiss, though, as he retrieved the half-n-half from the refrigerator and splashed a little in her cup. Jade brought the rim to her mouth, blowing at the steaming brew.

"Your cheeks look a little flushed. You feeling okay?" Harlan took a sip of his coffee, leaning casually against the kitchen counter.

Jade shrugged. "Probably just a little wind-burn." She found herself pacing in the spacious kitchen, and pulled one of the well-worn, ladder-back chairs away from the table, forcing herself to sit down. "You didn't tell me you had a biologist working on your property."

"Oh, you ran into the wolf guy...Conall. Yeah, he's a little...peculiar, but nice enough." Harlan laughed a little, "I guess an Irishman in the middle of Wyoming is peculiar. He definitely knows a lot about wolves."

"So who exactly is he working for? Fish and Wildlife? A university?" Jade's curiosity was piqued, and she wanted to find out everything she could about the sexy stranger.

"You know, I never thought to ask him. He seemed...legitimate. I told him about that old cabin because there's a spring box there for fresh water. He said he's monitoring the hunting and trapping activity as well as what the wolves in the area are doing. He believes that if there's plenty of wild game, there's less likely to be livestock loss." Suddenly Harlan's tone of voice hardened as a half-formed notion bubbled up, "He didn't do anything...inappropriate, did he?"

Jade shook her head, "No, no, he was very polite. I asked him to keep an eye out for anything suspicious going on."

Harlan relaxed, "Yeah, he was the one that brought us the piece of pant leg and told us what a good job Sargent did scaring them off. Frankly, I didn't think the old hound had it in him any more. The Aussies were barking their heads off, but I could have sworn I heard a wolf right before Conall showed up with Sargent."

"Why didn't you mention that before? What time was it, anyway?"

"Oh it must have been around four, four thirty this morning."

Jade tapped at the side of her mug, thinking, "So what was Conall doing out at that time of the morning?"

"He said this time of year, wolves are most active at daylight and dusk, so he is too."

Taking a final swig of her coffee, Jade stood up. "I better get back to town...but keep your eyes open, and call me the minute you notice anything odd, okay?"

"Yes ma'am," Harlan smiled, before clearing his throat a little nervously. "You have any interest in going to the rodeo in Jackson Friday night? Yours truly is going to be wrestling some steers."

Normally, Jade loved going to the rodeo, and back in high school she had barrel raced. She froze, though, as an internal struggle broke out between the sensible Jade who wanted to say yes, and the Jade who was fantasizing about a little-bodice ripping action with the mysterious Mr. O'Faolán. Stalling, she took her mug to the sink and rinsed it out.

"Do you mind if I call you tomorrow and let you know? I think I promised Nicolette I'd do something with her on Friday. Maybe...we could meet you there?"

"Sure, let me know." Harlan tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice, "But after I win, I was going to take you for a Buddy Burger and a mint chocolate chip milkshake."

Jade gave Harlan a quick peck on the cheek, laughing, "You certainly know how to make it tough for a girl to keep her promises."

Harlan's arm snaked around her waist, giving her a little squeeze, "That was pretty much the plan."

"Tell your dad I said bye. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

But on the drive back to town, Jade kept wondering what it would be like to kiss Conall O'Faolán.

***

Dusk was falling as Jade wandered along the little stream. It was unusually warm for early fall, and the mildness of the evening made her feel lazy. The gurgling of the brook over the stones was a pleasant backdrop, and an earthy smell of leaves and grass filled her nostrils. The sky had a reddish-golden glow, and it made her think how her mother used to always say, "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight." She missed her parents; they'd been killed the summer between her junior and senior years of high school, and the Pages had unofficially adopted her since she didn't have any close family. The life insurance had been enough to get her through college, and she moved back into her family home when she graduated. Despite all the love the Pages and the little community of Broken Wheel had shown her, though, there was always a space that she could never seem to fill, and every romantic relationship she'd ever had always imploded. Maybe, she mused, that's why she didn't want to get involved again with Harlan; maybe she wanted to spare them both the inevitable.

A soft rustle captured Jade's attention, and when she turned, she saw Conall. He said nothing as he extended his hand to her, merely smiling that same sad smile he'd left her with earlier. She took his hand and he pulled her to his chest, the warmth of his body radiating through her as he cradled her head against him, softly stroking her hair. Then, he tilted her face up to his, just as she'd imagined so many times on the drive back to town, and his lips took hers, first softly, then more greedily. His tongue made a sensuous inspection as she parted her mouth, and then his arm tightened around her waist, pulling her against the hard swell of his manhood. A little gasp escaped from her, encouraging him, and Conall began to divest Jade of her mannish deputy's uniform, starting by kneeling down and untying her boots. He kissed her soft bare feet, then stood to peel off her jacket, shirt, and her pants, with far less care and much more urgency, until finally, she stood before him, naked.

Emboldened by his gaze, Jade pulled Conall's t-shirt over his head, revealing his muscular chest and the little ruffle of soft hair between the swell of his pecs. Her hands traced down his body, following the trail of downy curls until it disappeared into the top of his jeans. She looked into his face as she unbuckled his belt, the sadness seeming to fade from his eyes. Finished with the buckle, she reached up to caress his cheek, their eyes locking in a gaze more passionate than any gesture...

Jade groaned as she flopped over in the bed, her arm flailing as she tried to stop the monstrous ring of the alarm clock. She rubbed her face; her beautiful dream faded, even as she heard a lone wolf howling mournfully in the distance.

***

"It was horrible, Dad. I can't believe we have neighbors that would do this."

Nicolette was visibly shaken; the color had drained from her face, and she had twisted the tissue in her hands until it was completely shredded. Jade wanted to give Nicolette a comforting hug, but something about the possessive way her new boyfriend, Nate Vanderville, stood over Nicolette put Jade off.

"Sheriff Page, I expect that you are going to punish the perpetrators."

There was a note in Nate's voice that was like fingernails on a blackboard, Jade thought, despite the careful Ivy League modulation of his tone. Granted, the head of the Wild Organisms Liberation Front—better known as W.O.L.F.—was easy on the eyes, and he had that way of looking like a man of the people despite wearing Prada hiking boots and a $200 flannel shirt. Rumor had it that his father was some kind of Wall Street wonder who'd made gazillions in the stock market and had encouraged his children to "give back" to society—since apparently they'd never have to work a day in their life. Still, Nate did seem to care about both Nicolette and the wolves, so Jade decided to withhold judgment on her friend's choice in men. After all, who was she to criticize anyone's romantic choices, when she was definitely a confused mess?

Wilson expelled his frustration with a puff of air. "Unfortunately, Mr. Vanderville, in the state of Wyoming, it's not against the law to be a vicious asshole if your target is a wolf you claim has been preying on livestock."

"Surely you have statutes to guarantee the humane treatment of animals?"

Jade watched as Nate's jaw set in a hard line and his hands clenched into tight little fists.

"Yes, we do. But most of the statutes are for the protection of domestic animals. If Biggy and Frank had done this to a horse, or a dog, or someone's pet ferret, I could indeed throw their dumb asses in jail, but as it stands, my hands are tied unless there are witnesses who will testify that they tortured or mutilated the wolf while it was alive. The fact that the Lemmons cousins are going around crowing that they did it isn't going to get a conviction."

"So you're saying that seeing the dead wolf isn't enough?" Nicolette sniffed a little.

"Honey, in these cases, the pen is mightier than the sword. You splash it all over the front page of the Gazette and the Lemmons will get skewered in the court of public opinion. Not even the ranchers who'd shoot a wolf on their property are going to approve of this kind of vile nonsense."

"Your dad's right," Jade chimed in, "They aren't real ranchers, anyway. They can't have more than a half dozen head of cattle. Hit 'em where it hurts—tell people to boycott their garage. Slim Mires and his daughter Delia are way better mechanics, anyway." Jade bit her lip, "Maybe we should all chip in and buy Slim and Delia a bigger ad in this week's Gazette."

Wilson couldn't help but chuckle. "Economic warfare and public shaming. I like it."

It wasn't what Nate Vanderville had in mind, though.

"Do you really think this petty small town crap is going to help the wolves?" He looked at Wilson dismissively, "At least Nicolette wants to do something substantial. W.O.L.F. is going after real justice since clearly local law enforcement isn't going to get off its ass. Come on—" Nate grabbed Nicolette by the arm, a little too brusquely for Jade's taste. "We're going to write a story about W.O.L.F.'s manifesto, and how rancher-law enforcement collusion is responsible for these murders." He kissed Nicolette on the top of her head, but the display of affection seemed too calculated to Jade.

Nicolette threw her father an apologetic glance, but said nothing as Nate hustled her out of the Sheriff's Department. After their departure, Wilson turned to Jade, "Tell me my daughter has the sense that the good Lord gave a goose. Something about that boy just ain't right."

"You remember how excited Nicolette got that time you took us to Idaho Falls to go to the circus?"

"What, you two must have been seven or eight?"

Jade nodded, "And after a few hours of elephants and spangles and cotton candy and corn dogs, she couldn't wait to get home to Patsy the Shetland pony and her mom's vegetable soup?"

"Yeah, I do remember. So you're saying Nate is a corn dog, and she'll come to her senses?"

"Something like that." More like a horn dog, Jade thought. "You know, Wilson, it's hard not to get swept away by bright shiny objects when you've spent most of your life in rural Wyoming. But right now, local law enforcement is going to get off her ass to have a chat with Biggy and Frank."

"Thanks, Jade." Wilson gave her a pinched smile, "I'm glad you're on this. Dougie is still piecing together that meth thing...literally...and Tim is on the other side of the county looking into some stolen horses. I'm pretty sure I've got the hardest working deputies around."

Jade zipped up her jacket, "Don't flatter us, we'll get spoiled."

A twinge of guilt poked at Jade as she turned the key in the ignition of the Bronco. Her lurid fantasies about the Irish biologist were basically in the same category as Nicolette's fascination with Nate. Except Conall wasn't bossing her around. Still, she thought of Harlan's invitation to the rodeo for Friday night, and decided she should call him and accept.

Before she could pull out of their tiny parking lot, the radio on the Bronco crackled.

"Jade, it's Wilson. I have a Mr. O'Faolán on the phone, I'm going to patch him through."

"Sure thing." Jade felt her stomach flip over with an entire colony of butterflies at the thought of Conall.

"Deputy Lundgren? Conall O'Faolán. I've found something that I think you should see. Can ye meet me at the Winters' ranch?"

"I'll head that way now, give me twenty minutes." Biggy and Frank would just have to wait, Jade thought.

"Alright then, bye now." The Irishman's voice clicked off and the radio went to dead air.

Jade did her best to mind the speed limit as she headed out to meet Conall. She tried to convince herself that her hurry was due to the case, but she knew better. The dream memory of Conall's strong hands on her body, and the tingle between her legs that it elicited, was evidence she couldn't ignore.

Things seemed strangely quiet when Jade pulled up at the ranch; the Aussies were nowhere to be seen, and neither Carson's nor Harlan's pick-up truck was parked out front. Sargent seemed depressed, she thought, barely raising his head to take note of her when she climbed out of her vehicle. Conall was sitting cross-legged on the porch next to Sargent, stroking the old hound dog soothingly.

Jade quickly surveyed the scene, "What's going on? Where are Carson and Harlan?"

Conall stood up gracefully, stretching unconsciously as he did. Jade almost expected him to give a canine shimmy as he unfolded his limbs.

"Apparently Harlan left early this morning to go to a tack shop in Idaho Falls, and Carson, unfortunately, is at the veterinary hospital in Jackson."

"The vet's? Why?"

Coming down the steps, Conall pointed to a blue plastic tarp on the ground. Gingerly, Jade knelt down and lifted the corner up. Her heart fell.

"Oh for god's sake." The still body of the Aussie was smeared with blood, and one of the dog's feet was completely missing. "Wolf trap?"

"Aye. A wolf trap." There was a darkness in Conall's voice, a simmering anger, that Jade didn't recall from their previous conversation. "I found them early this morning...I picked them up and ran here after I tried to put a tourniquet on this one's leg. She had already lost too much blood, though. The other one looked like he'd been beaten with something—he was probably trying to help the trapped one. Carson rushed him to the local vet, who sent him on to Jackson for surgery. He called me here, and told me to call ye."

So it hadn't been Conall's idea to call her. Jade shook it off; it really was not the time to be indulging in romantic fantasies. "People...who'll do this to animals? More than likely, they'll hurt people, too." Jade pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to concentrate, as she dropped the edge of the tarp and stood up. "You better show me the trap."

As they walked through the fields, Conall was quiet, and Jade followed suit. Conall's eyes seemed to dart about warily, as if he might see things that she didn't...or couldn't. More than that, there was something about his response to the situation that seemed...personal, she thought. It had a different quality than her own reaction as someone who loved animals and simply felt awful for the Winters and their dogs.

Finally Jade broke the silence, "Was the trap on the Winters' property or on BLM land?"

"It's definitely on the Winters' side of the line. There are 'No Trespassing' and 'No Hunting' signs posted everywhere, so some arsehole knew exactly what they were doing."

Jade quickened her pace to walk ahead of Conall, wanting to put a little distance between the slow smolder of the Irishman, and her own disorganized thoughts. The graffiti and the trap had to be related, but how? Were the Winters just a random target? Or was someone using the wolf problem as a smokescreen in order to remedy a grudge? Jade spun the bits of information she had like a mental Rubik's Cube, trying to find a pattern in the chaos.

"It's just up there." Conall pointed to a pleasant-looking grove of trees near a small brook running down the hillside.

The day was beginning to get quite warm as it approached noon, even in the shade of the trees. Conall leaped easily across the stream, then extended his hand to help Jade across. The clean smell of grass and dirt scented the air, and as Jade began to stretch out her hand to take Conall's, every detail of her dream flooded back: how Conall pulled her to his chest and disrobed her, how she was ready to give herself completely to a stranger. She blinked hard as she fixated on his hand. Save for the fact it was midday, not dusk, every nuance of the scene seemed identical. Should she take his hand? But she never answered the question, as in that instant she slipped on a wet rock, ending up on her backside in the shallow stream.

She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. The handcuffs attached to the back of her belt dug painfully into her tailbone. Fortunately, her gun was out of the water, and her submerged flashlight was waterproof. How was it that every time she came in contact with this man, she managed to make a total fool of herself?

Conall regarded her position with a bemused smile as he reached down, easily pulling her up, then setting her on the bank with his hands about her waist. Jade was sure that his hands lingered longer than necessary, even as he repeated his question from their initial introduction.

"Do ye do that often?"

Refusing to dignify the question with a response, Jade tried to put herself in order, painfully aware that a wet circle now circumscribed her backside. Conall peered over her shoulder, taking in her soaked derriere with an approving twitch of his eyebrow. Unconsciously, he gave his lips a subtle lick, but he made no further mention of her predicament. Jade, in turn, did her best to act like a professional, swallowing her complete mortification.

Conall led her to the trap. There was dry blood splattered on the tall grass, and pooled by the trap. Conall had jammed a thick tree branch into the steel-toothed jaws to keep it from hurting anything else. "Carson said I could destroy it, but it seemed best for ye to see it here first."

Jade nodded in agreement as she inspected the area around the trap. "Let me see the bottom of your shoe."

Obligingly, Conall turned up one foot. The sole of his light hiker had a pattern of raised ovals in the tread.

"Look at this." Jade pointed to was a partial footprint in the blood, but the pattern was more like a series of rectangles. She took out her camera and took some close-ups before taking wider shots of the trap and the general scene. Widening her circle of investigation, Jade couldn't find any other clues.

"I guess that's it for now. I think I want to go see what kind of boots Biggy and Frank Lemmons are wearing these days."

When they crossed the creek again, Jade accepted Conall's helping hand. Her hand felt small in his, secure. And she liked the way his palm felt wrapped around hers. Little calloused rough spots were separated by softer, more tender, skin. Once she was safely across, Conall quickly dropped her hand, though, and dipped his head in farewell.

"If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to check on my campsite. Since we seem to have vandals, trespassers, and killers about, I should probably be a bit more careful."

"That's probably wise. I'll catch up to the Winters later." Their parting made Jade feel a bit wistful, and a hundred yards out, she turned around for one last look at Conall. The biologist seemed to have vanished into the landscape, but Jade did glimpse—for just an instant—a wolf standing on a rock, watching her.

***

Rolling her eyes in total exasperation, Jade bent over and grabbed the rail of Frank's rusted old creeper, pulling him out from under a 1989 Ford station wagon. He shot out headfirst, nearly colliding with an equally rusty tool bin before Jade could stop the creeper with her foot.

"I said...I need to see the bottom of your shoes." Jade inched her foot closer to Frank's sensitive man parts to underscore the fact that he was in no position to be belligerent.

"You don't have to be such a bitch, Jade," Frank sputtered at her.

"That's Deputy Lundgren to you." Jade walked around to where she could see the bottom of his well-worn, steel-toed, work shoes. The bit of tread that remained had a zigzag pattern. She straightened up. "Have you been messing around up on the Winters' ranch?" Jade moved her foot back to its perch on the creeper rail, inches from Frank's testicles.

"Why would I be screwing with Carson? That cowboy has enough money and influence to hogtie a working Joe like me in a heartbeat." Frank sat up, "What are you after? Is this about the damn wolves?"

"I don't know, is it?" Jade tapped her foot a little, and Frank scooted away from the deputy's menacing extremity.

"Now listen here, girlie. You can't come bustin' in to a man's place of business without some kind of...probable cause." Frank scratched at his head, hoping he had gotten the legal jargon right.

"We're just having a friendly chat, why, the Bronco is due for an oil change any day."

"You know Slim and Delia do all your oil changes, so just cut to the chase."

No secrets in a small town, Jade thought with a sigh. "What do you have against wolves anyway? Didn't you learn in Sunday school to be nice to all of God's creatures?"

Frank reached into his pocket for a can of chewing tobacco. He pinched off a chaw and stuck it in his mouth. "You don't know your Bible, girlie. God gave men dominion over all the creatures, and that includes wolves. I ain't breaking no laws."

"You are if you're torturing them."

"Who says I've tortured anything?"

"Biggy, for one."

Frank set his mouth in a hard line for a moment, and then spat tobacco juice contemptuously at Jade's feet. "I ain't tortured no wolves."

"And last time I checked, vandalism, trespassing, illegal hunting, and cruelty to domestic animals were all crimes, Frank. Not to mention torturing wild animals. You might want to remind your big-mouth cousin of all that."

"You got nothing on us."

"Yet."

"You made your point Deputy; now get out of my garage."

"I'll be back later to talk to Biggy, if I don't find him bragging about his wolf kills over blueberry pie at the Brown Buffalo. Have a nice day, Frank."

She couldn't eliminate the Lemmons as suspects yet, but something about the vandalism and the placement of the trap seemed too sophisticated for Frank and Biggy. Frank was right, Carson could bury them with a wave of his hand; they had no reason to want to antagonize the Winters on a personal level despite the fact Biggy and Frank were nasty, cruel assholes. Something else was going on, but she felt like she couldn't see the trees for the forest. She needed Nicolette. Her friend's investigatory tendencies made her an excellent sounding board. Jade flipped open her cell phone.

"What are you doing for lunch?" she blurted when Nicolette picked up, "Can you meet me at the Brown Buffalo in fifteen minutes?"

***

"What do you girls want today? We've got a great chicken pot pie special." Sally pulled a pad out of the red apron tied over her jeans and brown and red Brown Buffalo Café golf shirt.

"Sure, that sounds great." Jade hated making menu decisions, "Small side salad..."

Before she could finish, Sally interrupted, as she jotted, "With oil and vinegar on the side...water, no ice. And Nicolette...turkey sandwich, cup of cream of broccoli soup, and an unsweetened ice tea?"

Nicolette nodded reluctantly.

"You got it." Sally bustled off to put their ticket up in the window.

"Do you ever," Nicolette grouched, "Get tired of living in a small town?"

"You mean where everybody, including yourself, is predictable?"

"Yeah. If I write one more story for the Gazette about Mrs. Dalton's pear jam winning at the state fair, or George Black's sheep getting top dollar, I'm going to poke my own eyes out."

"That might be a little drastic." Jade ripped the end off her straw and blew the paper wrapper at her friend.

"You know what I mean."

"So is that why you're crazy about Nate? He's not so predictable?"

Nicolette face melted into a dreamy reverie, "That...and the fact that he is spectacular in bed."

"You can't drop a bomb like that without dishing!" Jade poked Nicolette with the handle of her fork, hoping to hear something that would make her feel better about Nate.

"He's...exciting. Not...vanilla." Nicolette looked around to see who was sitting in the nearby booths, and dropped her voice, "He tied me up the other night."

"Tied you up?" Jade blurted it more loudly than she meant.

"Shhhh. Can you imagine my father if he caught wind of something like that? His head would explode in flames."

"Nate didn't hurt you, did he?"

But before Nicolette could answer Jade, Sally interrupted with a clatter of dishes. By the time the waitress was finished serving them, Nicolette changed the subject. "So what about you...and cutie pie Harlan?"

"He asked me to go to the rodeo in Jackson tomorrow night."

"So you're going, right?" Nicolette took a bite of her sandwich.

"I kind of had it in my head that we were supposed to do something. I mean, every since Nate showed up a month ago with his W.O.L.F. group, I never see you."

Nicolette shrugged, "You're seeing me now, right?"

"I—I really need to talk to you." Jade put her fork down. "I need to pick your brain about this case, and about Harlan, and there's this...new guy I met."

"Not so predictable?" Nicolette gave Jade a sympathetic look over a spoonful of soup.

"Not predictable at all...not that anything has happened. I'm probably being stupid." Jade picked her fork back up and stabbed industriously at the lettuce in her salad. "I should just call up Harlan and go to the rodeo tomorrow."

"Look, you know that honkytonk out on State Route 30? A bunch of the W.O.L.F. people are going to go out there tomorrow night. Why don't you come? You can meet some hip, interesting people, dance, get a little buzz on, and we can talk some more."

"Aren't you going to want to hang out with Nate?"

"Well, yeah, but you know, leader of the pack, he has to make the rounds. We'll have girl time, too."

"Okay, you're right, I could stand to shake it up. Get out of my ruts." Jade looked down at her uniform and added, "Get out of this uniform!" Nicolette started to snicker a little, and Jade corrected herself with a laugh, "I mean, wear something nice, feminine."

Nicolette reached for her purse, "Great! Lunch is on me. You buy the first round tomorrow night."

Jade spent the rest of the afternoon trying to track down Biggy Lemmons, to no avail. Once she got home, she threw in laundry, emptied the dishwasher, and went back over her notes and pictures, trying to see what she was missing about the case. Eventually, around nine, she heated up some leftover tuna casserole and popped a beer. Then it hit her: she had never called Harlan. Being hard to catch was one thing, but her parents had raised her to be unfailingly polite. Hesitantly, she picked up the telephone.

After offering her condolences to Harlan about the dog that had been killed, and inquiring after the other Aussie who, happily, was going to pull through, Jade finally got around to the topic of their potential date.

"Harlan, I, uh, I did promise Nicolette I'd go out with her tomorrow night." She winced a little at the half-truth. "And she's set on going to that honkytonk on Route 30. Could I please take a rodeo rain check?"

Harlan mumbled some kind of affirmative response, but as Jade hung up the phone, she knew that her chances with Harlan were rapidly diminishing.

That night, the temperatures started to fall, and Jade found herself snuggling deeper under the quilts on her bed. All of the day's anxieties and problems seeped away, and as she drifted off to sleep, she was sure she felt the press of a warm body curled next to her, and what might have been the feathery brush of a tail.

Do you like this book? Be sure to check other books in this series

Vanishing in Plain Sight - Volume 2

Luck of the Irish - Volume 3

Broken Wheel Wolves (Trilogy Bundle)

***

Eden Rising - Part 1

***

Synopsis

Adrift and uncertain about her future after her divorce, successful fashion designer Eden Valmont's life drastically changes when she encounters Aminah Yakubu, a beautiful realtor working for a neighbor. Drawn to Aminah's beauty and seductive energy, a casual invitation for coffee opens a dramatic new chapter in Eden's life when she meets Aminah's sensual husband, Lekan. An accomplished artist, Lekan's lust for life and passion for his work translates into an erotic and bittersweet journey of self-discovery for Eden when her relationship with Lekan and Aminah blossoms into a polyamorous journey...a journey that will ultimately launch her into the future she had been searching for.

***

Wiping a clear patch on the fogged mirror with her towel, Eden paused to stare at the dewy sheen of her body through dark, heavily-lidded eyes. Droplets of moisture clung to the ripe curves of her honey-colored skin, the amber nipples of her luscious breasts alluringly firm. Her fingers trailed lazy circles around the areolas, the dusky flesh pimpled with arousal. Though the bathroom was warm and steamy, she shivered from the sensation.

With half-closed eyes, Eden allowed her hands to trail down the hills and valleys of her flesh, from the fullness of her hips to the globes of her ass and the silky expanse of her thighs. Her body had become an exotic territory to explore, her fingertips intrepid adventurers seeking sensory experiences. Loitering toward the moist, swollen crevices of her smoothly-shaven pussy, she teased her pouting lips with the edge of a perfectly-manicured nail.

The delicate motion sent an electric thrill through her body, eliciting a gasp of pleasure. Leaning forward onto the granite counter, she spread her legs and caressed herself with both hands. Eden felt the heat emanate from her pussy. Droplets of sticky nectar clung to her fingers as they strayed in and around her gaping hole. Moving in time with her quickening breath, she teased her engorged clit until it swelled and throbbed.

Eden softly moaned. Her thighs trembled from her mounting need, and she felt a familiar languorous ache course through her body. Reaching for a thick, round-handled brush on the counter, she bent forward as far as she could and inserted it into her pussy. She cried out from the firmness filling and stretching her hole, and worked it deep inside until it reached her hilt.

Alternately writhing and thrusting against the brush, her heavy breasts swayed and slapped against the cool granite. Eden glimpsed herself in the mirror. Flushed, her full lips parted, strands of her lush, carelessly upswept ebony hair had worked loose and framed the sensuous contours of her face. A mix of European and Middle Eastern blood, she bore an exotic beauty tinged with an often fiery temperament.

Feeling the delicious burn of an impending orgasm throbbing from her core, Eden raised her ass and ground the brush handle inside her. She came explosively a moment later, incredible waves of pleasure resonating throughout her body so intensely that her jellied legs could no longer support her. For a moment, she thought she would faint from the sensation, and gripped the counter to support herself.

Her anguished cries echoed throughout the bathroom. Sweating, panting, the refreshment she had felt after her shower gone, Eden tossed the towel to the floor and collapsed on top of it. Reveling in the coolness of the marble tiles, she lay with closed eyes until she caught her breath and the heat from her body diminished.

From the bedroom, the distant trill of her phone banished the lingering euphoria of her release. She opened her eyes and stared at the skylight, which spilled a pool of golden light into the bathroom. The azure depths of the sky pulled her in as deeply as the ocean, and for a moment, all she wanted to do was dive into its infinite embrace.

But the phone continued to trill. It briefly silenced, then rang again, the sound as tenacious as cactus quills wedged into flesh. Eden sighed and rose, pausing to wrap herself in a fresh towel before entering the bedroom. A number flashed on the screen, a number she thought, and hoped, she had seen the last of. She hesitated, willing the persistent ringing to stop.

As though reading her thoughts, the phone silenced. Eden noticed three missed calls, but transported by her episode of intense self-pleasure in the bathroom, she had been completely oblivious. Her respite was quickly banished by the ringing phone. Startled, she almost dropped it before answering with ill-concealed irritation.

She heard the bustle of familiar background noise before she heard Gaylen's voice. The subdued chaos of an airport was a sound she had long ago grown accustomed to, only this time, she didn't know which location.

"Eden? Hello?"

Even now, her throat knotted at the bourbon and velvet tone of his voice.

"Eden, you there? Been calling you for the last twenty minutes."

"I'm here," she finally said.

"Well, I've only got a few minutes before I board," Gaylen said, "so I'm going to be out of commission for a while. Did you mail the papers?"

Papers... she thought. What a quaint term for the loss of twelve years of life...

"Yes, they went out yesterday."

"Okay, great. I'll let my attorney know."

Eden heard a muffled announcement. The voice sounded distinctly foreign.

"Sounds like you've got a long journey ahead of you," she said with more irony than she had intended.

"Dubai," Gaylen said, "then Moscow. Got a full plate."

"Well," Eden said, "you always did."

Awkward silence ensued. Eden had always hated the arguing, but somehow the silence was more damaging.

"Yes, I always did," Gaylen said. "I must have been a Bedouin in a past life."

The announcement echoed in the background.

"Anyway, that's my flight," he said. "I'll be in touch when everything's finalized."

Eden dabbed at her eyes, shocked to find them wet with tears.

"Okay," she said, barely able to swallow the emotion choking her throat. "Take care, Gaylen."

"And you," he said, hanging up.

Clutching the phone in her hand, she stared past it toward a distant memory. She shivered beneath the towel, her earlier afterglow replaced by the chill of finality. Twelve years of love, companionship, and struggle had evaporated in the simple disconnection of a phone line.

Eden tossed the phone to the bed and stared around a bright, open plan bedroom. Except for a few missing items only a trained eye would notice, the room appeared the same, but she knew in her heart that it would never be the same, no matter how many times she redecorated. The walls resonated with too many echoes, and too many tears.

Uttering a deep sigh, she approached the floor to ceiling window and stared at a view that had once inspired her. Perched on verdant hills, the custom-designed house offered a breathtaking eagle's nest view of the ocean. Shimmering in diamond bright brilliance beneath the warm sun of an early autumn day, the water merged into the infinitely blue horizon.

Passing boats bounced along the whitecaps, leaving foamy contrails in their wakes. Watching the graceful arc of yacht, sails briskly flapping in the wind, Eden poignantly recalled happier days when she and Gaylen had spent weekends cruising down the coast. Stopping off at scenic marinas and harbors along the way, they had enjoyed fine meals, gorgeous views, and most of all, each other's company.

This was in the days before Gaylen's freelance financial consultancy had gone global, and her fashion design business for plus-sized women transformed from hobby to full-time career. In the early days of their relationship, seated before the fireplace with a glass of wine or on the deck, nibbling on sushi, they had made plans to work jointly and expand their businesses together. Those were days of giddy excitement, energy, and anticipation.

When had things started to change? Eden tried to remember, but they had been so caught up in their respective visions that had lost sight of each other somewhere along the way.

Her eyes misted as she gazed at the ocean. Feeling a sudden chill, she wrapped the fluffy cream towel more tightly around her body and wandered aimlessly through the house. Ascending to the rooftop level that had housed both her studio and Gaylen's office, she felt a pang of sadness at she gazed into the empty, sunlit room.

Only the contemporary ceiling fan remained, the furnishings and fittings removed. The absolute emptiness of the space reminded Eden of a body stripped of flesh until only a bleached skeleton remained, and not even the stunning view could console her. She quickly closed the door and stepped into her studio.

Illuminated by sunlight streaming through skylights and floor to ceiling glass walls, her domain was an eccentric cross between a showroom, office, movie set and futuristic airport lounge. Eden's designs had evolved from creative dabbling in college to an internationally recognized label.

The studio revealed both the dynamic and quirky sides of a mind that could transform a crumpled paper towel into a dazzling gown or accessory any fashionista would die for. Piles of notes, printouts, and folders cluttered the surface of multiple glass desks, battling for space with computers, tablets, white boards and other office equipment. Her pride and joy, a Quattro sewing machine boasting an LCD screen and a dazzling array of features and accessories, sat like a monarch holding court on a custom-designed table.

Bathed in the morning sunlight, mannequins draped in Eden's stunning creations strutted like still life images, posing for an imaginary audience. A partially-mirrored wall reflected them, creating the sense of a milling crowd. Vivid colors teased the eye while bolts of fabric and sample bins of every richness and design vied with walls crammed with articles, awards, posters and autographed photos from countless celebrities. It was organized chaos, but it was the core of Eden's existence.

Her gaze fell on one of the mannequins draped in a gorgeous robin's egg blue one-shouldered Grecian style gown sprinkled with a glittering constellation of Swarovski crystals. Diaphanous folds of chiffon grazed the floor, and sparkling in the light, it resembled a spun sugar confection fit for a deity.

Eden approached the gown. She gazed at her creation, a unique piece commissioned by an actress for an upcoming award event. Dropping the towel to the floor, she carefully removed the gown from the mannequin and slipped it on. Her breath caught in her throat when she turned to the mirrored wall and swirled around. Clinging to the voluptuous curves of her body, the gown transformed her into the goddess whose images she had researched for design inspiration.

With each pirouette, the graceful lines of the dress flattered her figure no matter which pose she struck. Complementing the rich tones of her hair and the dusky tone of her skin, her Rubenesque beauty was almost ethereal. Eden ran her hands along the gauzy fabric, reveling in its sensual feel.

Gaylen had once caressed her in the same manner. The recollection of his touch and the searing heat of his lips on her naked skin elicited an instant reaction, and she felt the dull ache of desire rise from her core. Her nipples hardened, and moisture teased the swelling lips of her pussy.

"Stop it!" Eden cried, frustrated and angry that her physical needs had come to control her like a puppeteer jerking her strings. She shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind of the tormenting thoughts, but it was useless.

Ever since an early adolescence when her body had matured like a ripe fruit, she had struggled with her burgeoning sexuality in an environment that did not lend itself to open discussion or expression. At twelve, she had already discovered the secrets of self-pleasure while her friends fretted and giggled over clothes and boys. Attention from both boys and men had given her conservative parents cause for concern.

Insatiably brilliant, curious and creative, Eden had openly experimented with her mind and body.

By her junior year in high school, she had enjoyed sexual experiences with boys, and surprisingly, had also discovered an attraction to girls. A shiver of illicit excitement coursed through her as she recalled Marisol, a lovely Latina and member of the tennis team.

The day had been unusually warm for spring. Eden had been paired with Marisol, who, although new on the tennis team, showed exceptional skill. They decided to wait until after school when it was cooler to play a few games, but they soon worked up a healthy sweat. By the time they returned to the gym, they were both ready for a cool shower.

Eden was instantly taken by how unaffected Marisol was by nudity. Many girls felt shy or awkward about showing their bodies, but Marisol had not even bothered to fully draw the shower curtain. Eden had finished her shower first and was walking past wrapped in a towel when she noticed Marisol rinsing off.

Glistening beneath the water, Marisol's lithe, petite body and flawless olive skin exuded such sensuality that Eden was unable to stop staring. Inky black hair spilled down her tapered back in a wet curtain, and for a moment, Eden was tempted to grab it and twist the glossy strands in her hand.

At that moment, Marisol turned and looked at Eden with sable eyes that drew her into a secret place. Eden's reaction had been primal, her response immediate as she dropped her towel and allowed Marisol to feast on her full, luscious body. Marisol's eyes followed every curve and valley before reaching for Eden's hand and pulling her into the shower.

Bodies pressed together, their lips melted into kiss, their hands eagerly exploring hot flesh cooled by the water. There was little time. At any moment, someone might enter the shower area, so they quickly brought each other to a gasping, jerky climax with their fingers. Marisol had yelped like a wounded animal, her pussy twitching beneath Eden's aggressive touch.

Eden had stifled her own cries against Marisol's shoulder as she succumbed to an explosive orgasm ignited by Marisol's assault on her swollen clit. The encounter was over in less than five minutes, but it was one of the most memorable five minutes Eden had ever experienced. Even as she stumbled off to shower again in an adjacent cubicle, her body continued to throb beneath the cold water.

Their relationship had lasted until the end of the school year, after which Marisol's father was transferred and the family moved out of state. They had been discreet but passionate, and from that point, Eden had developed an appreciation for the female body.

Quickly removing the gown, Eden carefully arranged it on the mannequin. She paused to study her body in the mirrors before turning and glancing at herself over her shoulder. Running her hands along the plump contours of her ass, she allowed her fingers to stray to her warm crevice.

She bent forward, and spreading her cheeks wide apart, gazed at her smooth, plump pussy lips and the tight ring of her dusky asshole. It twitched like a hungry mouth as she lightly rimmed it with her nails, and a sudden image of her oiled fingers sliding deep into her hole sent a delicious shiver through her body.

It had been too long since she had used her dildos, the divorce and catching up with client orders consuming her time. She had always hated sleeping alone, and the emptiness of the king-sized bed she had shared with Gaylen had somehow transformed into the dimensions of a football field...vast, lonely, and cold.

Feeling the pressure of her mounting arousal, Eden spread the towel across the floor and lay on it. Bathed in a golden pool of sunlight, she closed her eyes and basked in pleasant warmth that caressed her body like phantom fingers. She raised her legs and spread them, savoring the touch of the sun on her pussy.

Soon, warmth became heat, ushering droplets of nectar from her hole. Eden's fingers strayed to the sticky wetness and gently tapped her rigid clit. Many times, Gaylen had watched as her body heat melted a chocolate kiss he had pressed against her swollen bud before slowly licking it off. The combination of Gaylen's relentless tongue and probing fingers had brought Eden to an orgasm so intense her flailing legs had almost knocked him out.

From that point, they had become more adventurous and Gaylen developed a fetish that included inserting chocolate bars, bananas and strawberries into her pussy and then devouring her. His ultimate creation had been his version of a banana split, including fudge sauce and whipped cream, which he had consumed with gusto.

Eden had responded in turn by creating a cocksicle by layering Gaylen's cock with melted chocolate, whipped cream, and chunks of strawberries. The exercise had been hilariously messy, and had soiled more than a few towels, but it remained one of her fondest memories.

Aroused by the graphic image in her mind, Eden's fingers began vigorously rubbing her clit. A few fingers strayed into her hole and began thrusting, her wetness causing a slushy squelching. Moaning softly, she closed her eyes and trailed a juice-saturated finger toward her asshole. Plunging it deep inside her gripping tightness, she cried out and began furiously bucking as she simultaneously fucked her pussy and ass.

Within moments, Eden came, her spasms exploding from her core like contained detonations. Juice gushed from her twitching pussy and asshole, her shower-cooled body now glistening with sweat and reeking of her musk. Surrendering to blissful release, she collapsed onto the towel and lay softly panting.

Through half-closed eyes, she gazed at the blue expanse of sky, watching a flock of seagulls as they flapped by. She envied their freedom and wished that she, too, could simply spread her wings and soar through the sky. But she was land bound, a prisoner of gravity, and whatever her fate entailed ultimately depended on the choices and decisions she made about her future.

Eden sighed and slowly rose to her feet. She had work to do and orders to fill. No doubt, her phone would already have a dozen waiting messages. Tossing the soiled towel over her shoulder, she stepped into the combination bathroom/dressing room adjoining the studio and turned on the shower.

***

The morning had given way to a glorious afternoon, the temperatures mild and invigorating. Emerging from the house dressed in one of her delightful yellow and white jogging ensembles, Eden was about to start a brisk walk around the neighborhood when she noticed an expensive silver Lexus parked across the street.

Secluded among densely shaded hills, the scattering of upscale homes flanked a street culminating in a cul-de-sac and was strictly residents only. Eden knew everyone on the block as well as their vehicles, so she instantly noticed the car. A moment later, a stunning ebony-skinned woman emerged from the secluded house across the street. Dressed in a gorgeous cream and black edged suit that beautifully augmented her lithe, statuesque figure, she moved with regal poise. Her shoulder-length mahogany hair brushed her shoulders in a stylish flip that framed a sculpted face, full lips and soaring cheekbones.

Eden curiously watched the woman approach her car, speaking into a phone with a slightly accented voice. Not wanting to appear too inquisitive, Eden had just started to walk away when the woman glanced toward her. She smiled, and while it was warm and friendly, it was the woman's startling green eyes that snared Eden. Quite simply, she was the most beautiful woman Eden had ever seen.

"Hello," the woman said.

"Hello," Eden replied, catching a subtle whiff of floral perfume. "Can I help you with anything?"

The woman approached and extended a beautifully manicured hand. Eden grasped it, and felt the silken warmth of her flesh. Her grip was firm and assured, the grip of a successful woman.

"Aminah Yakubu," she said with a voice as rich as burnt chocolate.

"Eden Valmont," Eden replied, scrutinizing her. "I don't know why, but your face seems familiar."

Aminah laughed with appealing huskiness. "I wish I could say I had that effect on everyone, but I'm a realtor, so you've probably seen my face on a billboard or a bench somewhere."

"My God," Eden said with a smile. "I have...on a bus stop bench near the supermarket, in fact."

Aminah shrugged. "Well, it may not exactly be the cover of Vogue, but it works."

Eden laughed. Aminah's charm was so contagious she already felt like the two were the best of friends.

"I assume you know the Kleins?"

"Very well," Eden said. "Are they selling?"

"They've hired me to sell a rental property of theirs in the neighborhood. I have to admit, I've never been to this delightful area before, though. It's absolutely gorgeous." She paused to admire Eden's house. "That's a lovely contemporary home. Custom?"

Eden nodded. "Pretty much like everything else."

Aminah suddenly looked closely at Eden. Lined with black kohl, Aminah's almond-shaped eyes were seductive, almost hypnotic. Eden felt as though she could float into their seafoam green depths.

"Wait a minute," Aminah said with a grin. "I'm not the only face about town. I know you...I know your name.. but I'm not sure..."

"Boldly Bodacious?" Eden offered.

"I thought so!" Aminah said. "My mother adores your creations. She has one of your amazing Evening in Paris gowns, that fabulous black and gold ensemble."

"A happy customer, I hope," Eden said with more than a little pride.

"Oh, trust me; if she knew I was talking to you now, she'd be on the next plane here."

Eden laughed. "I hope we're not talking about a lengthy trip."

"Charleston," Aminah said. "My parents fell in love with the South when they visited some years ago. My father was a diplomat at the UN."

"You must have had an adventurous childhood."

"You have no idea," Aminah said. "Army brats have nothing on me."

Watching Aminah speak with such animation, Eden felt as though they were childhood friends reconnecting after a lengthy absence. She realized that it had been too long since she had enjoyed the company of her friends.

"Would you like to come in for some coffee?" Eden blurted out. "That is, if I'm not keeping you."

Aminah smiled conspiratorially. "Well, I was actually hoping for an invitation," she said. "I have nothing else scheduled for the rest of the afternoon, and it would make Mom's day if I could get a look at your designs."

"I have a better suggestion," Eden said. "How would you like to model one of them?"

***

Staring at herself in the mirrors, Aminah's smile engulfed the room. The pale bronze silk figure-hugging sweetheart gown embellished with topaz crystals gleamed like fire in the light, rendering her almost ethereal. Aminah slowly turned, her posture that of a queen, her beauty such that Eden could only stare.

"You look absolutely stunning," she said.

Aminah ran her hands along the shimmering fabric. "You have a talent from God," she said. "To create such beauty...I envy you."

"We all have our gifts," Eden said. "It's just up to us to use them."

Aminah glanced at the reflection of the other gowns. "Those are all one of a kind as well?"

"Those are my custom orders," Eden said. "So they range in all sizes. I designed those myself, but Boldly Bodacious is my ready to wear plus line that I create with my team."

Aminah's gaze rested on the state-of-the-art sewing machine. "I'm interested in commissioning a dress," Aminah said. "Your creations are stunning."

"I'd be honored," Eden said, feeling the genuine warmth of her words. "Would it be for a special event or occasion?"

"My tenth wedding anniversary is coming up in November. I wanted something special, since my husband and I plan to celebrate in Sydney."

Eden felt a pang of sadness. Next year would have been her thirteen anniversary, but thirteen had definitely not been a lucky number for either her or Gaylen.

"That sounds wonderful," she said. "I may be heading that way myself for a show. Getting a lot of orders from that part of the world."

"Let me know," Aminah said, fumbling to reach the zipper. "If I'm there at that time, I'd love to attend." She laughed. "I give up. Can you help me, Eden?"

"Of course," Eden said, unzipping the gown.

Her eyes followed the parting fabric as it revealed a satiny expanse of obsidian skin. The contrast between light fabric and dark skin entranced Eden, and she found her fingertips lingering against Aminah's back.

When Eden glanced up, she noticed Aminah watching her in the mirrors. A moment passed as their eyes held each other.

"It really is beautiful, isn't it?" Aminah asked.

"Aren't all beautiful things meant to be admired?" Eden asked, pondering Aminah's words.

"Perhaps I should make an appointment to discuss my dress," Aminah said. "What's your schedule, like?"

"Pretty hectic at the moment, but if you could give me an idea of what you're looking for..."

Aminah smiled and ran her hands along her hips. "You're looking at it," she said. "I would need a smaller size, but apart from that, this is exactly what I want."

"Then most of my work is already done," Eden said. "All I need are your measurements."

"The model awaits your command," Aminah said, striking a regal pose.

The effect was so stunning, Eden could only stare. "Don't move," she said, hurrying to her desk to retrieve her phone. Furiously snapping photos, she circled Aminah, who posed with fluid grace. "Are you sure you weren't a model?" Eden asked, admiring the stunning images captured on her phone. "You're a natural."

"I tried it for a while when I was younger," Aminah said, glancing provocatively over her shoulder. "Reminded me too much of hyenas I once saw in Africa, scavenging the remains of a zebra. Not my kind of thing."

Eden paused. "You're quite a woman of accomplishment," she said. "I hope your husband appreciates that."

"He's one of a kind," Aminah said. "I consider myself very fortunate to have found such a soul mate. As an artist, he has one of the most unique perceptions of the world I've ever seen. His creations are expressions from the soul."

"Then he most definitely is one of a kind," Eden said, feeling a surge of emotion. Once she had considered herself fortunate and a life without Gaylen seemed as remote as the outer solar system.

"Eden, are you all right?" Aminah asked.

"Of course," she replied. "Why do you ask?"

"You're a beautiful, talented, successful woman living in a large home with a very empty room. It's not my place to ask, but sometimes the eyes tell me everything I need to know."

Eden didn't know how to respond. That Aminah was perceptive was not surprising, but right now, Eden felt as though she had glimpsed into her soul.

"I hope I haven't upset you," Aminah said.

"Not at all," Eden said. "In fact...it's almost liberating. At least now I don't have to keep up the pretense."

"Recent separation?"

"I actually just mailed the final divorce papers. We were married twelve years. I could have signed them sooner, but..."

Eden's words trailed off as she realized she didn't really know why she had prolonged signing the divorce papers. Gaylen had moved out more than six months earlier, and had spent so much time traveling before their separation that she had actually been living alone for quite some time. Interestingly, she tended to be evasive when her friends asked the same question, yet she had easily opened up to someone she had only just met.

"Sometimes it's just hard to take that final step," Aminah said. "Probably because you think you failed. It can be difficult to accept change no matter how ready or able you think you are to deal with it."

Eden glanced thoughtfully at the last image she had taken of Aminah.

"I guess you're like a camera, Aminah," she said. "You certainly see below the surface."

"Living abroad changes your perspective," Aminah said. "And I don't mean in those pretty tourist places you find on television shows or travel sites. I've seen the world as it truly is; at its ugliest and most beautiful, peaceful and war-torn, a place of dreams and nightmares. It teaches you a great deal about human nature. That's one of the reasons I enjoy being a realtor so much. I know how to deal with clients because I see more than they expect. Call it intuition or just a skill learned from all my travels."

"Then you also have a gift," Eden said. "As for my ex-husband, I can only hope he finds what he's looking for. It's so ironic that it was his endless traveling that created the rift between us."

"We all have our journeys, Eden. Sometimes people and relationships simply change because they served their intended purpose."

"There's a famous poem about that, I think," Eden said.

"People come into your life for a Reason, a Season or a Lifetime?"

"That sounds like the one," Eden said, wondering which category Aminah fit into. Somehow she knew her life wouldn't be the same, but whichever role Aminah was intended to play, Eden was ready.

She walked over to her desk, set her phone down and picked up one of her tablets. Later, she would upload the photos. Opening her customer database, she poised her fingers over the first blank entry and looked expectantly at Aminah.

"As a new client, I'll need to get some information before I take your measurements. You want to get started now?"

Aminah's smile was as dazzling as the gown. "Ready when you are, Eden."

***

Wrapping the measuring tape around Aminah's bust line, Eden felt the scintillating heat of Aminah's flesh beneath the shimmering gown and noticed the faint quickening of Aminah's breath. Eden didn't need to look into the mirrors to know that Aminah watched her every movement, and while Eden tried to concentrate on the measurements to enter into her client database, her fingers moved with a mind of their own, constantly brushing against the firm mounds of Aminah's breasts.

She paused to input the measurements into her tablet, then wrapped the tape around Aminah's narrow waist. It occurred to Eden that Aminah was a complete contrast to herself, from her color to the feline slimness of her body. She found it exciting, as though she were exploring virgin territory. The sheen of Aminah's skin fascinated her, and she fought the temptation to run her fingers along its smoothness.

"You okay, Eden?" Aminah asked.

Eden started, realizing that she was staring at the ebony slope of Aminah's bare back.

"Sorry, just phased out for a moment. I tend to get lost in my creations and the dress looks almost like part of your body."

Aminah smiled. "And this isn't even my size. Maybe you should stop before it goes to my head."

Eden laughed. "But that's my goal, Aminah. I want to make every woman who wears my designs feel as beautiful as possible. The fashion industry has brainwashed us long enough into believing only size zero women fitting a narrow description of beauty are the icons to which we're supposed to set our standards."

She felt her emotions flare, but industry bias had been one she had struggled against all her life, and she was determined to do her part in changing what she believed were outdated attitudes.

"Bravo," Aminah said. "A woman of passion. I like that. I can feel it in your voice. It's time the definition of a woman wasn't pigeonholed by a dress size."

Eden input Aminah's waist measurements, then glanced at her. "I meant no offense, but as a model, you know firsthand what I'm referring to."

"None taken, Eden. Remember why I left that world. Also, as a black woman, I've dealt with my share of bias."

"I guess we all have," Eden said. "That's the problem."

She moved to measure Aminah's hips, her fingers inadvertently brushing her pubic mound. The flat smoothness was unmistakable, and Eden had a sudden flash of Aminah's clean-shaven pussy. She forced herself to focus on the measurements, then quickly broke away to enter them.

"Just a few more," Eden said. "Every figure is different, so I like to be precise."

"Take your time," Aminah said, gazing into Eden's eyes with almost disturbing intensity. "It's just you and me here."

Eden half smiled, uncertain whether she had imagined the innuendo or not.

"I never rush," she said. "Slow and steady gets the job done much faster than rushing it."

"Slow and steady is good," Aminah said with a smile that left no doubt in Eden's mind that innuendo was brewing like a simmering pot about to burst its lid. "But I like it both ways...slow and steady, or hard and fast. Just depends on the mood."

Her liquid eyes snared Eden, mirroring emotions Eden felt had been yanked from her most secret place. For a moment, time suspended, and then Aminah's silken lips found their way onto Eden's. There was a fleeting moment of hesitation, then the crushed-fruit sensation of lips pressed together that melted into a deep, passionate kiss.

Without a word, Aminah pulled Eden into an embrace, their bodies locked together in a sensual yin and yang. Their tongues fenced, their breasts pressed tightly together until the hearts beat against the frantic rhythm of tangled arms and discarded clothing. The exquisite gown fluttered over the back of Eden's chair like a blossom caught on the wind.

Gazing into the mirror, Aminah smiled at Eden's naked reflection. Her eyes were dark with desire as they drank in the ripe perfection of Eden's body. Eden stood motionless, captivated by Aminah's sculpted beauty. The room seemed to grow warmer by the moment, or was it Eden's own arousal fanning the flames?

Suddenly, skin moved against silken skin, the delicious friction inflaming each nerve on Eden's body like tiny sparks of electricity. The scent of perfume rose above the aroma of sexual musk, exciting both women even more. Their hands became bolder, trailing along the curves and valleys of backs, hips, and stomachs.

Trailing her mouth down Aminah's neck, Eden nuzzled satin skin and gently lapped at the slightly salty sheen. She continued kissing and licking until she reached Aminah's erect fudge-dark nipples and circled them with her tongue.

Aminah closed her eyes and sighed deeply while pressing Eden's mouth tightly against her breasts. Uttering a guttural cry, she pulled Eden to the floor and engulfed her with her body. Entwined, mouths and hands a blur of motion, they writhed together in frenzied motion.

Drifting through surreal layers of pleasure, Eden's eyes fluttered as she surrendered to Aminah's body. Emotions churned within her and released along with any doubts and inhibitions. It was as though a beautiful butterfly had emerged from the chrysalis, but for Eden, it was breaking through the shell of her past.

Aminah rose, paused to gaze down at Eden's damp, flushed body, and spread Eden's thighs wide apart. She knelt between them as if in prayer.

Eden felt the heat of Aminah's gaze scour her body until it rested on the exposed petals of her pussy.

"You're so beautiful," Aminah said, "like a perfect shell washed up on a beach."

She reached to caress the sensitive inner flesh of Eden's thighs. A delicious languor overcame Eden, transforming into raw heat as Aminah's questing fingers strayed to Eden's pussy.

Eden jerked at the electric sensation of Aminah's touch. Liquid heat throbbed from her core, eliciting a gush of sticky wetness. Moaning softly, she raised her spread thighs and parted her ass, inviting Aminah's hands to further explore. Long, slender fingers caressed Eden's engorged folds of flesh, tickling and teasing until her body arched from the agonizing pleasure sparking through every cell.

Now Aminah's fingers probed Eden's hole, slipping inside slowly at first, then relentlessly until only her knuckles showed. Deeply pumping Eden's turgid flesh, Aminah teased Eden's clit with her free hand. Her eyes shut so tightly that tears edged them, Eden bucked furiously against Aminah's thrusts. The pressure of Eden's impending orgasm rose like a cresting tsunami. It exploded so abruptly that she had only time to cry out before Aminah abruptly withdrew her fingers.

Eden's body jerked, her breasts swaying with each spasm. She squirted until her juice saturated her thighs. Gasping for breath, her heart beat so rapidly that she felt faint. She had experienced intense orgasms before, including through her own hands, but never to the point where it was almost an out-of-body experience.

Aminah sat on her haunches and studied Eden as if memorizing every detail of her body. Panting like an animal in heat, her skin glowed with the sheen of black alabaster. To Eden, Aminah was perfection in the flesh. Large, dusky nipples rose proudly from taut breasts, her slim, tapered torso culminating in rounded hips and a cleanly-shaven pussy, displaying plump, succulent lips. Her legs revealed toned musculature, her smooth feet beautifully proportioned.

Holding Aminah's gaze, Eden's hands trailed across her body with soft, feathery strokes, circling her areolas and teasing her nipples the same way she had caressed Aminah. Her body began to respond to her sensual touch, and her hands found their way to her thighs where she pushed them open to offer Aminah a tantalizing view of the juicy pussy she had just enjoyed.

Smiling softly through her spread legs, Eden began teasing her pussy with her fingers, stroking her dusky folds and swollen clit. Aminah's breath quickened as she watched Eden's expression transform to ecstasy. Inserting her fingers deep inside her dripping hole, she shut her eyes tightly, her body swaying to the relentless thrusting.

Watching raptly, Aminah's fingers drifted to her own pouting flesh. Spreading her thighs, she parted her swollen slit and began to mimic Eden's movements. Together they pleasured themselves, their hips bucking in rhythm with their soft, urgent moans.

Eden glanced at Aminah. Drawing her thighs high over her shoulders to open herself to Aminah even further, her fingers worked her pussy and penetrated the tight, twitching ring of her ass. She cried out, her body jerking as she shuddered from an intense orgasm, her breasts swaying in time with her spasms.

Aminah made a sound like a wounded animal and crawled toward Eden. Straddling her face, Aminah spread her dripping pussy and lowered it onto Eden's mouth. Eden squirmed and raised her hands to grip Aminah's ass, her tongue probing, sucking, and licking the sweet, salty flesh filling her mouth.

Gripping Eden's shoulders, Aminah writhed and ground her hips against Eden's face in tight circles. Eden's fingers joined her probing tongue and slid into Aminah's pussy, causing her to gasp as Eden stroked her g-spot. The sensation of Aminah's tightly-clutching flesh felt like a hand gripping Eden's fingers, and, gagging on Aminah's flowing juice, Eden trailed the fingers of her other hand to Aminah's twitching asshole.

Eden had barely teased the tight ring when Aminah uttered a guttural cry and violently came. Every jerk and spasm of her body resonated through Eden, transporting her to a realm of utter mind-numbing pleasure. Aminah's fingers gripped Eden's shoulders so tightly that red indentations began to appear.

Wincing, Eden was about to push Aminah's hands free when Aminah collapsed with a grunt beside her. Limbs entangled, their hair and bodies damp with sweat and juice, they lay panting for breath, their flesh sensitized to the slightest touch.

Bobbing along a sea of chaotic sensations, Eden stared up at the birds soaring past the skylight. She felt as though she could float up and touch them. Turning toward Aminah, who lay on her side like a recumbent Venus, a slight smile touched Eden's lips. She wondered how it could be possible to share such a connection to someone as quickly as a lightning strike.

In the twelve years Eden had shared with Gaylen, there had been moments of incredible passion, but also painful lows. Their relationship had ebbed and flowed, and like a river after a prolonged drought, it had finally dried up. Questions plagued her; answers eluded her.

Then, Eden turned, as she fell into the limpid depths of Aminah's eyes, the answers she sought were captured in Aminah's gaze. Only one question remained...where it went from here...

***

Sipping glasses of delightfully crisp Chardonnay on the patio, Eden and Aminah relaxed on loungers overlooking the sparkling infinity edge pool and the lushly planted yard beyond offering complete privacy. The afternoon had transformed into an early evening bathed by blushing salmon skies tinted with mauve. A new moon grinned from the east, and the trees shimmied from a cool ocean breeze.

Aminah stared at the deepening shadows of the surrounding hills. Reluctantly, she reached for her phone and checked the time.

"I've had the most wonderful day, Eden," she said. "I'm so excited about the dress. I can hardly wait to see it."

Eden smiled and nibbled on a creamy piece of brie. "I'm really looking forward to starting on it. I have to admit I haven't felt this enthusiastic about a project for a while. I mean, I've been working, but now it's more than just an order to fill for a client, I actually feel that passion again."

Aminah rose and watched the landscape lighting glow to life. In the soft focus hue of the evening, her profile resembled that of an Egyptian queen.

"Passion is what keeps the blood flowing," she said.

The trilling of her phone distracted her. Eden noticed the image of a handsome, ebony-skinned man appear on Aminah's phone. Though she didn't mean to stare, she was captivated by the man's striking features.

"Hey, baby," Aminah said as she turned away and answered. "Yes...I know. I'm sorry. I meant to call earlier but things got...a little crazy. You know how it gets sometimes."

Aminah listened for a moment and laughed, the resonance like the tinkle of fine crystal.

"You're so bad," she said teasingly. "What am I going to do with you?"

Eden sipped her wine, trying not to listen, but absorbed Aminah's every word, every nuance. She wondered about the conversation she wasn't hearing, and something about Aminah's demeanor suggested that the call was sexually charged.

"Really?" Aminah said. "That sounds wonderful. I'm looking forward to it."

She glanced toward Eden and caught her look of curiosity. Smiling, she returned her attention to the phone.

"So you won't believe who I met after I saw my client today." Aminah laughed. "No...be serious, Lekan."

Lekan...Eden thought. The name had a commanding, primitive sound.

"Okay, there's no way you're going to guess so let me tell you," Aminah said. "You know my mom's crazy about those Boldly Bodacious designs, right? So guess who I'm here with now."

Aminah approached, and Eden caught the deep resonance of laughter.

"I'm here with the designer, Eden Valmont. Really! I'm not kidding. Mom would be screaming like a little girl if she was listening right now."

Eden smiled to herself. It was truly amazing how serendipity worked. Earlier today, she had felt emotionally adrift and uncertain about her future. Now, thanks to a chance encounter, her life had taken a completely different direction. She had almost considered asking Aminah about listing the house, the bittersweet echoes of the past more of a burden than she wanted to deal with.

Now that thought was a distant memory. Aminah's presence had not only infused Eden with a renewed sense of direction, she had somehow purified the house like the ceremonial burning of sage.

Glancing up, she caught Aminah's look.

"If you like," Aminah said, "but I'll have to ask her first."

"Ask me what?" Eden said.

"My husband wants to meet you," she said. "Lekan is also familiar with your designs. You have more fans than you realize, Eden."

A shiver coursed through Eden. She wasn't sure why, but the thought of meeting Lekan excited her more than she wanted to admit.

"He's more than welcome to stop by," Eden said. "We'll have dinner, share some good wine, and see where the evening goes..."

***

Eden was in the kitchen cooking jambalaya when the doorbell rang. Her heart gave a little lurch of anticipation, and admittedly, she was looking forward to spending the evening with Aminah and her husband. She paused to sample the jambalaya and almost swooned at the rich flavor. It had been an impromptu meal choice, but it was one of Eden's specialties, and now the kitchen resonated with an appetizingly spicy aroma. Food had always been another of her passions and she enjoyed creating new recipes as well as adapting traditional favorites.

At one time, she and Gaylen had enjoyed cooking together, but after finding herself spending more time alone, Eden had gradually abandoned her chef's dream kitchen and focused more on smaller, quicker meals that fit into her hectic schedule. Tonight, she had brought her expensive pots and utensils out of the mothballs and was enjoying every minute of it.

"That's Lekan," Aminah said as she finished setting the table.

She went to answer the door. A moment later, Eden heard animated voices, then approaching footsteps. Though she tried to focus on stirring the simmering jambalaya, her attention immediately wandered when Lekan entered the kitchen. Tall and imposing, he strode toward Eden like a Nubian god, his presence instantly dominating the room as powerful as the sandalwood scent he wore. His smile was dazzling, his grip firm as he clasped her hands. Wearing a beautifully-cut black Armani shirt and black pants, his body rippled like a gleaming oil slick.

"Eden Valmont," he said in a rich baritone. "You're even more beautiful in person. I'm so delighted to meet you. You're quite a celebrity in our circle."

Captivated by eyes the color of midnight, she tried not to stare as he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. The contact against her flesh sent a delicious thrill through her body. If anyone had ever been an inspiration for a deity, it was the man standing before her. With sculpted features, sensual lips, and hair cropped closely to his skull, he was as magnificent as Aminah was breathtaking, and Eden suddenly felt like she had stumbled into a dream. Yet even as she gazed from Lekan's face to Aminah's, she understood that she had stumbled into a very different reality.

"The pleasure is mine," Eden said.

"Actually, I think the pleasure is ours, Eden," Lekan said.

He laughed, the sound reminiscent of gently rolling thunder. "I hope you forgive my insistence in coming to dinner this evening. When Aminah told me about you, I knew there was a reason you had met."

Eden looked at him with curiosity. "Why would you think that?"

"Let's sit down," he said, "have a drink, and let the evening unfold."

Do you like this book? Be sure to check other books in this series

Eden Rising - Part 2

Eden Rising - Part 3

Eden Rising (Trilogy Bundle)

***

New Moon

***

Synopsis

Erin can't help but be taken in by handsome newcomer to her office, Sean. The way he stares at her with deep, dark eyes sends a sensuous shiver right through her body.

Erin is drawn to Sean, not just because of his devastatingly handsome looks. One night, when he needs a ride home, Erin is glad to offer, but alone in the car, passions run high and soon Erin is finding out just how intense her attraction to Sean is. But he hides a dark secret. Sean is mysterious and a loner, could he be linked to the spate of murders occurring round town? Could Erin be sleeping with a killer?

***

Erin eagerly sipped at her morning coffee, hoping the caffeine would help perk her up. She'd not slept at all the previous night, which haunted by nightmares of being attacked by a figure she couldn't quite distinguish. She blamed the sudden spate of murders in the local area for troubling her sleep.

"Bad night again?" Coleen, her co-worker, asked from her desk opposite.

"Yeah," Erin sighed, running a hand through her shoulder length black hair.

"I blame all these unexplained murders," Coleen shook her head and pursed her lips in disapproval.

Coleen was in her late thirties and a kind-hearted woman. She was heavyset, short, and a peroxide blonde, the complete opposite of Erin, who was long and lean with alabaster skin and piercing green eyes.

Coleen was forever an unnatural shade of orange thanks to her obsession with self-tanning products. It was upon Erin's insistence that she stopped using tanning beds and resorted instead to the lotions, which whilst safer, gave her the most unnatural neon glow.

"They found another body last night," Diane, the office manager, paused by their desks and whispered the news conspiratorially.

"Really?" Erin's eyes widened in horror and she leaned forward in her seat.

"Another woman?" Coleen asked, also gripped by the update.

Diane glanced around to ensure that no one else was listening. Her husband was on the local police force; he worked as a homicide detective, which gave her unprecedented information to any local murder scandals. She perverted the knowledge she gained for the purpose of turning it in to office gossip. It proved a useful way of keeping employees loyal to her.

"You didn't hear it from me, but yes, they will be announcing it this morning, another woman. Got her while she was out jogging last night."

"Terrible," Coleen shook her head but there was a morbid delight illuminating her eyes, like when you drive past a car accident and you can't help but stare and be drawn in to the terrible scene.

"Be careful what you say around this one though," Coleen said maternally, gesturing across at Erin.

"She's already having nightmares, poor thing."

"I'm fine," Erin protested, though the bags beneath her eyes said otherwise.

"You live alone, don't you?" Diane asked, her eyes focusing on her young colleague in concern.

"Yes but I don't go out jogging at night," Erin smiled sweetly.

"Good girl, you need to keep safe. Especially when there's a killer on the loose." Diane's voice was stern but warm.

Killer was perhaps an understatement for whomever or whatever was attacking local women. Even the newspapers refrained from relaying the full gruesome details of the ordeal which befell the victims.

Over the last month, several women had been found. Each body was dismembered almost beyond recognition, as though something had torn straight in to the flesh. Originally, they believed the killings to be animal-related, that the perpetrator was a bear or large cougar. But as the attacks continued, it seemed less likely that one animal could keep overpowering these women and soon, people in the town were coming home early, locking their doors and drawing their blinds to keep out whatever evil was prowling around their now unfamiliar streets.

"I'm sure they will catch the killer soon," Erin said a little too hopefully. She hadn't been brave enough to confide in anyone that her nightmares started two nights before the first body was found, making her believe that somehow she was linked to the terrible things that were happening.

"Any day now," Diane smiled confidently, sure of her husband's abilities. "Anyway, enough death and gloom, I've some good news for you girls."

"Oh?" Coleen titled her head to the left, resting on her medley of curls.

"We've got a new hire starting today. I interviewed him himself. Very handsome young man, I think you'll be impressed," she winked at the two women behind their desks and then sauntered off to her own private office.

"Ohh, new hire!" Coleen cooed excitedly, her mood immediately brightened as though the previous dark conversation of death and murder had never happened.

"That means fresh meat!" she continued, delving in to her desk drawer and retrieving a compact mirror and some lipstick which she proceeded to carefully apply.

"Coleen, you're a married woman," Erin teased.

"Married, not dead," Coleen chuckled. "There's still red hot blood flowing through these veins, I can assure you!"

Erin rolled her eyes and looked at her computer monitor. Already her inbox was stacked up with jobs for the day. Her head throbbed from lack of sleep and her eyes ached. It was going to be a long day and doubtless would be followed by another sleepless night.

"I wonder which department he's in?" Coleen asked, glancing around the vast open space of the office as she did so.

"Who?" Erin asked, distracted by the conversation from her emails.

"The new guy!"

"Oh." Erin shrugged. "No idea."

Coleen continued to glance around the room, then her gaze locked in on someone and a sly smile crept across her plump face.

"Hold the phone!" she declared, clasping her hands together in glee. "I do believe we have a winner!"

"What are you on about?" Erin asked, not glancing away from her monitor.

"I've located our new guy and he is delicious! I could eat him up!"

"You're going to get smacked with a sexual harassment lawsuit one day. You know that right?" Erin asked.

"For him, it would be worth it," Coleen declared, seductively raising an eyebrow. She watched Erin continue to type away at her keyboard, distracted by her screen, and became impatient.

"Erin, just look at him, please!"

"I'm busy." Erin shook her head.

"Come on! You're young and single, you have to let me live vicariously through you!" Coleen pleaded. "Just check him out! He's right over there, you won't be disappointed."

Sighing, Erin turned with resignation in the direction Coleen was gesturing and immediately spotted the newest member of their firm.

An unfamiliar yet devastatingly handsome man who was wearing a white shirt and grey trousers was stood talking with another manager, nodding intently at what they said. He had short brown curly hair and the faint shadow of stubble extending up to his defined cheekbones.

You could that tell beneath his shirt, he had an amazing physique and toned muscular arms. As Erin looked over, she had to admit that Coleen was right; she wasn't disappointed by what she saw.

But as she watched, the new guy turned and locked eyes with her. His eyes were unbelievably dark, almost the color of coal. He stared intently at Erin until she could take no more and had to look away.

"Isn't he gorgeous?" Coleen giggled, oblivious to Erin's now-blushing face.

"He's...handsome," Erin admitted, daring to look back at him. He was once more locked in intense conversation with his manager but she couldn't shake the feeling that had come over her when he looked at her. It was as if an electric impulse had shot through her whole body, making every nerve suddenly come to life. It was the most turned on she had ever felt and she wanted to feel it again.

"Do we know his name?" she asked Coleen who shook her head.

"Maybe I should try and find out," Erin suggested cheekily.

"Ooh yes, do!" Coleen clapped her hands together with glee. She loved any sort of office flirtation; she found it more entertaining than any of her television shows as she got to witness it all firsthand.

Erin slid up out of her chair and headed over to the other side of the office under the pretense of using the copier. The hot new guy now sat behind his own desk, which was conveniently located on the way to the copy room.

As she approached him, Erin noticed all the other women looking over at him with hungry eyes, but he didn't seem to notice. He was busy typing in to this computer when Erin stood nervously at the edge of his desk. This close, she could see that his chest was just as muscular as his arms and he smelled of cedar wood and lime; it was an intoxicating scent.

"Hi," she coughed nervously, clearing her throat. The new guy didn't look up at her; she was beginning to think that the intense moment between them across the office hadn't even happened and that she'd imagined it. She was on the cusp of being dangerously sleep-deprived, so she wouldn't be surprised if she'd started hallucinating at the office.

"I'm Erin, I thought I'd come and say hi since you're new and all," she shifted uncomfortably, waiting for him to respond.

He looked up and held her once more in his dark, intense eyes. There was something unnerving about the way he looked at her, as though he'd seen her before.

"Hi." He replied flatly, his voice deep and husky.

"So, what's your name?" Erin asked directly, not wanting to return to Coleen empty-handed.

"Sean," he replied with the same masculine voice, his eyes wrinkling slightly in amusement at her boldness.

"Sean, is that an Irish name?" she felt foolish asking but was trying to make conversation. She felt as awkward and self-conscious as her thirteen-year old self would have if she were chatting up the most handsome guy in school.

"I think so," Sean replied politely. He didn't look at Erin again but she was desperate to have his eyes on her once more, to feel her whole body tingle with energy.

He continued to type at his computer, making it blatantly obvious that he didn't want to talk anymore, which left Erin feeling dejected. Most men fell over themselves to talk to her; she wasn't accustomed to being over looked.

"Well, if you need anything, I'm just over there," Erin pointed to her desk, spotting Coleen staring over, entranced by their conversation.

"Okay," Sean said politely once more, still not looking up.

Unable to press the conversation further, Erin proceeded to the copy room, documents in hand. She glanced back slyly to see if Sean had followed her with his eyes and was disappointed to see that he had not.

As she stood over the copier she felt someone enter the room, accompanied by the strong scent of vanilla.

"He's so gorgeous!" Coleen declared, unable to contain her excitement and wait for Erin to return to her desk.

"Did you get his name?"

"Sean," Erin answered, glad to have at least learned something about the handsome stranger.

"Sean," Coleen tried the name on for size, rolling it off her tongue with delight. "A nice, strong name for such a strong, handsome man."

She gently headed to the doorway and glanced back up at Sean, but he was still diligently working.

"You're not very subtle," Erin commented, smiling.

"You should ask him out!" Coleen declared jubilantly, as though it were the best idea ever to be conceived within the living memory of the world.

"What? No," Erin protested though she had thought about it. She felt drawn to Sean in a way that she couldn't describe or understand.

"Yes, you're stunningly gorgeous! If he likes women, then you're going to be his type!"

"Thanks, but he might like men," Erin countered.

"You don't know unless you try," Coleen pressed. "Besides, if he turns down a stunning girl like you, then he probably does prefer men, and at least then we'll know!"

"Let's give him a day to settle in before we start harassing him, shall we?" Erin suggested, not sure if Sean would accept a date with her and not wanting to endure the humiliation if the whole office saw her being turned down.

"Okay, okay," Coleen backed down and relaxed a little. "But tomorrow, you need to pounce, else someone else will."

"Do you mean you?" Erin joked.

"Yes, I've always fancied myself as a bit of a cougar!" Coleen growled jokingly at Erin. "Or would I be more of a Milf?" she pondered aloud.

"I honestly don't know," Erin smiled, laughing. And for a pleasant moment the fearful thoughts about the lurking killer in town were gone and replaced by something lighter.

***

That night, Erin didn't dream of some phantom lurking in the darkness beyond her house. Instead, she dreamed of Sean.

In her dreams, he was with her in her bed, running his hands up her body, pressing his lean torso against her flesh. As sensuous as the dream was, there was something wild about it, too.

Sean would aggressively move her into a variety of positions as Erin gasped in gleeful delight. With him inside her, she felt more turned on than she had ever been in her life. And as they made love, he frantically kissed her neck as he cupped her breasts.

Erin awoke panting and in a sweat, her sheets sodden around her. It took her a moment to realize that she was alone. The dream had felt so real, she'd half expected to wake up and find Sean sleeping naked beside her.

Dazed, she got up out of bed and headed to the bathroom for a shower, knowing that she'd need it on the coldest setting. As the cool water washed over her, she tried to clear her mind from the images of the dream, but was powerless to keep them at bay. She couldn't stop thinking about Sean's hands upon her body, how good it had felt to have him inside her.

Unable to distance the dream, Erin had no choice but to succumb to the intensity of her fantasy. She reached down between her legs and in the coolness of the shower, began to tease her clitoris with her fingertips, imaging Sean's kisses cascading down her back, his roving tongue licking her entire body, tracing a line between her breasts, down her stomach, over her hips, until finally...

Gasping, Erin came in the shower. She leaned her head against the door and tried to catch her breath, her body still shuddering with pleasure.

***

Dressed and in her car Erin, still felt out of sorts. As amazing as her morning had been, it wasn't like her. She couldn't even remember the last time she had masturbated. It was as if Sean had somehow put her under some sexual spell and now all she could do was desperately fantasize about having sex with him.

Shaking her head, Erin turned the key in the ignition and pulled off her driveway, heading toward the office. She told herself that she was just a girl with a crush, nothing more. Granted, it was a particularly sensuous crush, but still, it was a crush nothing more. She was having hot sex dreams about Sean simply because it had been so long since she'd actually had sex. And it made a very pleasant change to her normal violent nightmares.

Arriving at work, Erin vowed to push her desires to the back of her mind and focus on the day ahead.

***

"Well, you are positively glowing!" Coleen greeted Erin as she came in and took off her jacket at her desk.

"I am?" Erin blushed, feeling self-conscious, wondering if she was suddenly wearing a badge that declared to the world that she'd climaxed that morning.

"Whatever you're doing, it's working," Coleen complimented.

"I guess I just slept well," Erin shrugged casually.

"No more nightmares?" Coleen enquired.

"No," Erin shook her head. She had been plagued by her nightmares for so long that it felt strange to have gone a night without them.

"Looks like a good night's rest was all you needed," Coleen smiled. Then her gaze shifted to behind Erin and a cheeky grin settled across her face.

"Well, my view just improved," she winked.

"Sean?" Erin asked, knowing full well that she didn't need to. She could sense his arrival in the office from the rows of female heads which were now tentatively glancing up from their desks to have a glimpse at the new office Adonis.

"The one and only," Coleen confirmed.

"I don't know about him," Erin admitted. "I tried speaking to him yesterday and I found him to be a little...rude."

"Maureen in finance said exactly the same thing," Coleen replied without hesitation, as though she'd been eager to impart this latest morsel of gossip.

"She said she tried to talk to him, you know, get to know him a bit, ask where he's from, that sort of thing, and she couldn't get a word out of him. Such a shame that the handsome ones are always too arrogant to be kind." Coleen shook her head and made a cluck of disapproval.

"Yeah he was pretty standoffish," Erin said, turning to glance briefly at Sean. As she did so, his eyes automatically locked onto her eyes, causing her skin to break out in goose bumps. Turning back quickly, she could feel her heart racing in her chest.

The images from the dream the night before began to resurface. She remembered his face next to hers, how he'd smelled, how he'd felt. How he had kissed her with deep, passionate kisses where he searched her mouth with his tongue and it had all felt so good. Too good.

Running a hand through her dark hair, Erin tried to focus her thoughts.

"You okay? You look flushed," Coleen frowned with concern.

"I'm fine," Erin panted heavily. "Just had a hot spell." She got up and headed toward the bathroom, needing a moment to regain her senses.

Inside, she stared hard at herself in the mirror, where the false overhead lighting gave an unflattering reflection. She held herself against a sink and tried to get a control of her thoughts. She was at work; it was no place to entertain idle sexual fantasies.

Groaning with frustration, Erin turned on a tap and splashed cold water on her cheeks. This wasn't like her. She was always so cool and collected; she was normally the last person who would let a man get under her skin. Yet here she was, unable to even make eye contact with Sean without being taken over by some erotic animal desire to have sex with him.

"Dammit," Erin moaned to herself as she wandered in to a stall for some tissue paper to dry her face.

She'd fancied men before, but never like this. It was as if it was almost beyond her control, which scared her a little.

Leaving the bathroom, Erin felt refreshed and determined to stop letting her ridiculous crush get in the way of her work. It wasn't as if Sean even liked her, so the chances of them ever even having sex were slim to none. The last they'd spoken, he'd been so rude that it was almost off-putting. Yet the dream and then the shower that morning...

Erin stopped walking when she felt a pair of eyes intensely drilling in to her. She stopped suddenly in her tracks and looked up and saw Sean looking directly at her from the doorway to the copy room. Lifting her chin, Erin forced herself to meet his gaze and not turn in to a quivering mess.

He stared at her for too long, possibly ten seconds—far past the realms of politeness, then turned and went in to the copy room. Frowning, Erin followed him in. She was tired of his mind games.

She began to get fired up, ready to tell him that while he might think he's God gift to women, he wasn't!

"Sean," Erin said his name as she entered the room, putting on her most assertive voice.

"Hey," he barely glanced up from the copy machine as he nonchalantly greeted her. Full of nervous energy, Erin clenched her fists, trying to remain composed and relaxed.

"I was wondering how you were settling in to the job," she said, aware how lame she sounded but needing a way to start a conversation between them.

"It's okay," Sean shrugged casually, not looking up from the copier. Erin ground her teeth in frustration. His behavior made no sense. In the office, he was giving her long, lingering looks, but in close proximity, he was basically flat-out ignoring her. What was his problem?

Then, as if reading her thoughts, he turned and looked at her. His eyes were so intensely dark, like the dead of night. He regarded her with mild amusement, watching her squirm beneath his gaze.

"Do you like it here?" he asked her, his voice so deep and guttural.

Erin was caught off-guard by the question and felt herself blush. When he looked at her, her mind had once more been flooded with images of them in bed together. Her legs had wrapped around him as they sat on the edge of the bed and he went deeper inside her than any man had ever done before.

"Erin?" Sean's voice broke the power of the spell and she returned to reality with a start, a hot damp sweat having formed on the back of her neck.

"I like it here fine," Erin answered a little too breathlessly.

"You seem...out of sorts," Sean mused, a wry smile pulling at his lips. Erin stared at lips, remembering how they had caressed her own lips and her skin.

"I'm fine," Erin clarified, shaking her head and casting away the remnants of the dream. She realized it was the second time she'd said fine, which by women's standards, meant she was anything but.

"Okay." Sean nodded at her and then turned back to the copier.

"You know, for the new guy around here, you're awfully quiet," Erin suddenly blurted, her anger about his indifference getting the better of her. She placed her hands on her hips and stared him down, waiting for a response.

Sean turned to look at her, smiling to himself as though humored by some personal joke.

"I find talk to be cheap, don't you?" he asked, once again holding her in his intense gaze. Erin shivered beneath the scrutiny of his stare. She felt like he was able to see right through her, to the very core of her soul. Even though she was fully dressed in her usual work attire of shirt dress and stockings, she felt completely naked and exposed when Sean looked at her. It was a sensation she had never felt before with anyone.

"It wouldn't hurt you to make try and make some friends around here," Erin stammered, feeling less sure of herself, her anger dissipating as she hovered uneasily near the door.

Shrugging, Sean once more turned away from her.

"I don't plan on sticking around for too long," he explained ominously. Erin tried to hide the fact that this disappointed her. Instead she put on her sternest face and walked back out of the door, feeling his eyes upon her as she left.

***

"I hate month end," Coleen sighed from her desk as she shuffled through a growing pile of paperwork.

"Tell me about it," Erin agreed, raising a hand to her temple. She'd been so busy with work all day that she'd not had time to revisit her encounter with Sean that morning. The dream and the subsequent shower felt like they occurred in another lifetime. Now, her mind was clogged full of fiscal details and spreadsheets. Numbers danced through her mind where before there was only naked flesh and desire.

Sighing, Coleen rearranged some papers and looked forlornly out of the office windows at the far side of the vast open room.

"If I don't get all this done, I won't finish on time to take Jake to soccer practice," she said woefully.

Erin looked over at the stack of papers on Coleen's desk which was considerably higher than her own set of papers.

"Send some of them this way," Erin offered kindly.

"You sure?"

"Happy to help," Erin smiled sweetly.

"Thanks, hon, I owe you," Coleen smiled as she came over with a small pile of papers which she placed beneath Erin's current pile of work.

"At least the murders seem to have stopped," Erin said lightly, trying to raise their spirits. There had been no media report of a latest killing to add to the list of victims.

"For now," Coleen stated a little too darkly, causing Erin to shrink into her seat at the thought that they weren't out of the woods just yet. Danger could still be lurking within their town, just biding its time and waiting to pounce.

***

Erin watched the day darken through the vast office windows as around colleagues slipped away one by one, eager to return to their homes for the night.

"I appreciate you working late," Diane commented as she herself prepared to leave, wrapped in a designer coat.

"I don't mind," Erin shrugged. All she had waiting for her was an empty house and her stored-up television shows on TiVo. Both could wait.

"Just don't stay too late, mind you. Don't want you going home in the dark," Diane said sternly. Then she turned and left, Erin hearing the click of her heels grow more and more distant.

Eventually, Erin was completely alone in the office and working on her final report. As she pressed the send button, she sighed with relief. Coleen had been right to state how brutal month end could be. Checking her watch, Erin was surprised to see that it was half-past nine. Outside, the world was now swamped in dense darkness.

A chill ran up Erin's spine at the prospect of going home alone in the dark. Resigned to her fate, she got up, turned off her computer and pulled on her coat. As she left the office, she made sure to switch off the central lights, plunging the area in to its own dense night.

***

The parking lot was almost completely empty. There were a few cars dotted around belonging to cleaning staff and a few late stragglers, but Erin's was alone in a far corner of the lot, surrounded by some shrubbery.

As Erin walked over to her car she quickened her pace as her mind suddenly thought about the murders, about the women who alone at night were being targeted, picked off and gutted like an animal. She was basically running when she finally reached her car and opened the door, but as she did so, she heard something rustle in the nearby shrubbery which made her blood turn to ice.

Immediately, she imaged the headlines the following day; young office worker savaged in parking lot. She could see Coleen weeping, saying how guilty she felt for leaving early. Then she imaged her mother getting the call to say that her daughter, the one she barely saw these days, had been ripped apart and killed.

Closing her eyes, Erin tried to calm her thoughts, telling herself that she was being childish, that there was nothing there. The shrubbery moved again and Erin stood rooted to the spot, feeling terrified.

"It's just a coyote," she told herself, though she didn't believe her own logical explanation. Slowly, she opened her car door and began to ease herself inside when she spotted the unmistakable outline of a man within the shrubbery, illuminated by a nearby streetlight. Erin screamed in shock and was about to shut herself safely in her car when she noticed that the figure looked oddly familiar.

Bravely, she remained outside of her car for a moment to assess what she was seeing as the figure stepped out of the shrubbery toward her.

"Sean?" she breathed his name in disbelief. Sean emerged from the shrubs, still wearing his shirt and trousers but they were muddied and he had scratches on his face. He appeared dazed and confused, as though he didn't know where he was.

"Sean, oh my God, are you okay?" Erin rushed to him, fearing he'd been attacked. Sean looked up at her as though she were a stranger, his eyes dim and unresponsive. Then he shook his head, like a dog shakes off water, and his eyes suddenly brightened and became more alert.

"Erin, hey," he smiled at her, revealing a row of perfect white teeth.

"Sean, what are you doing out here?" Erin gasped, attempting to dust off some of the dirt on his shirt. As she touched him, she couldn't help but notice how taut his muscles felt beneath the thin material of the shirt.

"I..." Sean glanced around as if trying to remember. "I went out for some drinks with the guys from work and things must have...gotten out of hand."

"And you ended up in the bushes!" Erin exclaimed, drawing closer to Sean to inspect him. He didn't smell of alcohol, he smelled of something else that she couldn't define; something coppery.

"I must have overdone it and dozed off there," Sean shrugged, smiling cheekily at her.

"Where were you guys drinking?" Erin queried, unsure where there was close to the office to enable him to get in such a state.

"Oh, in old town, but I guess they dumped me back here after, sort of an initiate the new guy thing."

Sean held Erin with his deep dark eyes and she felt herself beginning to melt.

"Well, I can't just leave you here," Erin said nervously, fluttering her eyelashes at him. "Need a ride home?" she gestured toward her car.

Sean glanced at the vehicle and then looked back at her, smiling seductively.

"A lift would be great, thanks."

Erin got in the driver's seat as Sean settled in beside her. She felt intoxicated to have him so close to her and struggled to keep her mind from straying to more sexual thoughts. As he put on his seatbelt, she imagined pulling him into the back of the car, ripping off his shirt and kissing his perfectly toned chest as he kissed her neck and undid her blouse.

"I live near central," Sean explained, breaking the sexual scenario playing out in her mind.

"Okay, great," Erin turned the key in the ignition and the car came to life. She made her way out of the parking lot and turned on to the street.

All the while as she drove, she kept glancing at Sean. He was so tantalizingly close to her. She could so easily reach out and touch him; stroke his leg, brush his cheek, grab his dick. She was suddenly overwhelmed with her desire to grab his dick. To hold it until it was hard and then unleash it from its trousered prison, place it deep within her mouth and then suck and tease until he came hard in to her mouth, so that she could taste him, swallow him.

Shaking her head, Erin pushed the thoughts away. She was starting to sicken herself the way she was unable to control her sexual desires. She'd been attracted to men before but never like this. It was as if each time she was around Sean, she was hypnotized into wanting to have sex with him so that she was unable to think about anything else at all. Desperate for a distraction from her thoughts, she flicked on the radio.

A rock song by the band Bon Jovi came on, about an outlaw who was wanted dead or alive. Erin remembered loving the song when she was growing up almost as much as she'd loved the handsome lead singer of the band.

"I used to love this song when I was younger," she turned and smiled at Sean, trying to make conversation.

"It's a good song," Sean nodded in approval, his eyes glittering in the dark with hidden menace.

"Did you like the song or just want to fuck the guy who sung it?" Sean asked, delivering the question casually as though he were discussing the weather.

Erin coughed, almost choking on the bluntness of the question. She looked at Sean out of the corner of her eye, trying to discern if he was joking or not.

He watched her reaction and smiled to himself.

"Too blunt?" he asked.

"Just a bit!" Erin declared, still blushing.

"Sorry, I tend to be a bit...direct about that kind of stuff." Sean apologized.

"What kind of stuff?"

"Sex, desires, that sort of thing," Sean shrugged. "I think too many people deny their sexual urges and it's wrong. Our sexual impulses are one of our last primitive urges and we should embrace them rather than try and quash them."

"That sounds like an eloquent way of saying you sleep around," Erin noted, arching an eyebrow. She realized, growing excited, that this was the most she'd ever spoken with Sean before; it felt like he was finally opening up to her.

"I don't sleep around, I have fun," Sean answered teasingly, looking Erin up and down with hungry, voracious eyes.

"I bet you have a lot of fun," Erin laughed.

"Perhaps," Sean accepted, still watching her.

Erin was desperate to change the subject. All the talk of sex and desires was making her want to pull in to the nearest parking lot, pull down her panties and beg Sean to enter her there and then; else she would go crazy with yearning.

The song on the radio ended and a serious broadcaster came on.

"This is the news at ten and our lead story is that another body has been found, seemingly linked to the spate of other murders occurring around town," the voice said, stern and formal in tone.

"The female victim was found by a dog walker at nine this evening."

Nine, that was just before Erin left the office. She felt sick with fear. Her horny thoughts were gone, replaced by cold, terrified ones.

Had she left the office earlier, the latest victim could have been her. It could be her body being pored over by forensic detectives, her face looking forlorn out from televisions as a cautionary tale for all young women who dare to walk alone at night.

"The attack was believed to have occurred in West Town." The broadcaster explained.

West Town. The location hung in Erin's mind, adding to her nausea.

"That's right by our offices," she said aloud, her voice small and fearful. Sean looked at her, the flirtatious look in his eyes replaced by a more stoic one.

"You were out there in the bushes, did you see anything?" Erin asked him as she waited at a traffic light. They were approaching Central; soon he would be home, back in his own apartment, and Erin would be alone.

The thought of going back to her small house on the outskirts of town under the cover of darkness suddenly terrified her. The killer was clearly still at large and could be lurking anywhere, searching for their next victim. She imagined waking in the night hearing a strange sound, going to investigate it and breathing her final breath as the killer attacked her, having been lying in wait.

"I didn't see anything," Sean replied, his face unreadable. "I was out of it until you showed up."

"I can't believe there's been another murder," Erin shook her head in disbelief. "Those poor girls."

But it wasn't the girls she cared about, it was herself. Until the killer was discovered, she was in danger. The victims were always women, out alone. Living alone, Erin was often by herself. She'd long left her home town and its small sensibilities behind in the hope of making a new, exciting life for herself.

Yet since the murders began, she yearned for her old home, for the small town where she knew everyone by name. She missed the familiarity of the streets; the way you could leave your door unlocked and not worry about someone stealing from you. Life in the city was so different; strangers were always regarded with suspicion. Erin no longer felt safe in the life she'd made there. A part of her knew it was only a matter of time before the killer came for her, in a strange way she'd known ever since the story of the first murder broke. It was only a matter of time until Erin's name became embroiled with it all.

Above her, the light finally turned to green and she stepped on the gas.

Sean ran a hand across his face and watched Erin out of the corner of his eye. As she drove down Central, she noticed that he was beginning to fidget more in his seat, as though unable to keep still.

Spots of perspiration appeared on his forehead as he kept squirming within his seat. He looked as though he were battling some invisible opponent. Feeling unnerved, Erin tried to focus; they were nearly at his apartment.

The radio announcement about the latest murder had concluded and been replaced by some more rock music. Erin tried to listen to the melody, to let the pattern of it distance her from her thoughts but it didn't work.

Beside her, Sean placed his hands upon the dashboard and began to drum along furiously to the song, smacking his palms on the plastic in time to the beat. It was frightening to watch. Suddenly, he had boundless energy and was struggling to reign it all in.

"Sean, are you okay?" Erin asked nervously, suspecting that he was on drugs and that this was all a bi-product of being high. She was angry at herself for not realizing that he was intoxicated sooner. She should have seen the signs; he'd awoken in a bush with no recollection of how he got there. Blatantly, Sean was doing drugs.

Erin frowned in annoyance. She'd been so attracted to him, so desperate for him to be perfect yet he had turned out to be just another shining example of how she always picked the wrong guy.

"Sean?" she said his name again when he didn't answer. This time he heard her and ceased banging on the dashboard. Turning his head slowly, he looked at her and there was a hunger within his eyes. He scanned Erin up and down with a longing that both terrified and tantalized her.

Parting his lips slightly Sean showed his teeth and for a surreal moment, Erin thought he might growl at her. Not that she'd be adverse to that, she enjoyed a good bit of role play under the right circumstances.

But he was on drugs, nothing else. Erin shook her head, not allowing herself to be taken in by his handsome looks and dangerous nature.

"You always like the bad boys," Erin's mother had stated sadly when Erin was a teenager, having been caught sneaking back in to the house yet again after taking a ride home on the back of a boy's motorcycle.

"They're not bad, Mom, they're misunderstood," Erin would protest, pouting beneath her black lipstick and glaring out at her mother from behind too much eyeliner.

"No, they're just bad," her mother would sigh with dismay. "And they're going to drag you down with them, just you wait and see."

The teenage Erin would ignore her mother's warnings, shut her bedroom door and drown out any negative thoughts with music from The Smiths and The Cure. Looking back, Erin knew the boys she hung around with were bad news. Most of them had police records and did drugs of some kind, but she didn't care. She was drawn to them because they were dangerous. Her life was so safe, so settled; they offered her an escape from that.

Even now, while driving Sean home, Erin was unable to escape her teenage preference for boys of a bad nature. She knew she should just drop him somewhere and leave his drug-addled mind to fend for itself, but she couldn't do that. Her eyes kept drifting to his crotch as she drove and she knew that her attraction to him was blinding her from making the safe, logical choice.

"Sean, are you high?" Erin demanded when he still failed to respond to her and instead just looked over at her with deep, intense eyes.

"No," he told her, his voice sounding almost like a purr. He continued to watch her with intense interest.

"Then what's wrong?" Erin asked. "You're all over the place. It's...distracting."

Sean smiled wickedly at the comment, enjoying her discomfort.

"Are we even close to your place? You haven't given me any directions!" Erin stated desperately, aware that she'd been driving through central for a number of minutes without exactly knowing where she was going. Luckily the streets were deserted enough to enable her to idly drive around.

"I think we should go to your place," Sean stated and Erin felt her entire body start to tingle with anticipation.

Why did he suddenly want to go to her place? Did he want them to have sex? Did he feel the same magnetic attraction between them as she did?

The dream lingered deliciously at the front of her mind with renewed intensity, suddenly it might become real. Erin felt her breath grow short and struggled to maintain control of the wheel as she turned the car around and headed back in the direction of her own small house on the outskirts of town.

"Back to mine, but why?" she asked, realizing she should have delivered the question before turning the car around. She seemed too keen.

"The story on the radio," Sean gestured to the stereo system in her car. "It made me worried about you. I don't want you going back to an empty house at this late hour, at least let me check it out before you go in."

Erin smiled at the sweet, selfless sentiment of what he'd proposed. It had been a long time since she'd had a guy look out for her. The problem with bad boys is while they might be sexy and alluring, they weren't there for you when you needed them.

***

As she grew up, Erin had watched her school friends settle down, get married, and have children. Each time she met up with them, they asked her that same inevitable question;

"When are you settling down?"

The question drove Erin crazy. She didn't want what they had; the perfect home with the white picket fence, a life full of diapers and school runs. She wanted adventure, a life without limits.

But Erin didn't have that. Instead, she had a job in an office which drove her crazy and a small house where she lived alone.

One by one, Erin lost contact with her old, settled friends. They didn't understand her, couldn't see that she was waiting for something. She didn't want the life she was leading to be all that there was. She still needed that element of danger, of excitement that only her bad boys could give her.

It was when the nightmares started that Erin really started to question her choices. Each night, when she woke doused in her own sweat, terrified within the darkness of her small bedroom it chilled her to find her bed empty. She'd have given anything in those moments to awaken to a familiar, reassuring face that was looking out for her. When terror gripped her on those nights, Erin regretted holding out for excitement and a part of her wished she'd just settled, as at least then she'd be safe.

But she hadn't settled; she kept chasing that elusive something that even she couldn't describe. Yet when the murders started, she felt a strange sense that she would somehow be connected to them all. That the thing she'd spent her whole life chasing and waiting for was suddenly imminent.

"You need to find yourself a nice boy and settle down," her mother would state, her voice pleading as Erin sat on the sofa, drinking tea from a cup and saucer.

"But I want a different life," Erin would explain, aware how terribly vague and without purpose that sounded.

"I just don't want you to waste your life waiting for something that may never come," her mother would sigh, staring sadly into her own cup.

Erin hated to see her mother sad, which was why she ceased visiting as often as she once did as her presence only seemed to bring the old woman grief.

Once, her mother was taken ill by a cold which developed swiftly in to a viscous fever. Erin had rushed to the hospital to be by her mother's side but when she arrived, the old woman was delirious from the medication and didn't want to see Erin.

As she approached the hospital bed, smiling and bearing flowers, Erin's mother began to lash out, yelling at her daughter to get away from her.

"Mom, it's me," Erin said, dejected, pausing at the foot of the bed.

"You cannot be here!" her mother hissed.

"Mom!"

"You bring the darkness with you, Erin, you always have! I tried to get you to fight it, but you never could, you let it in! You must leave, you cannot bring it here!"

Distraught, Erin had turned and fled, consoling herself with the fact that her mother was on medication and didn't know what she was saying. Then the murders started and with them came the nightmares and soon Erin found herself wondering if there was any truth to her mother's laments. Had she let darkness in to her life? Would that darkness now define her?

***

Erin turned in to a small side street and drove down the familiar road to her house.

"Is this where you live?" Sean asked, glancing out at the neat, tidy lawns and small, smart houses.

"Yeah."

"It's nice," he stated kindly, turning to look at her. The agitated angst no longer danced in the back of his eyes. He now appeared calm and composed. Erin assumed that his drug-induced trip had merely concluded, much to her relief. She'd witnessed firsthand what happened to people who overdose; it was an occupational hazard of being a bad boy addict. Erin didn't want that to happen to Sean. Even though she barely knew him, she felt drawn to him.

Pulling in to her small driveway she stopped the car and turned off the key in the ignition. For a moment they sat in the car, in the dark stillness of the night. Erin could hear the steady rhythm of Sean's breath, it was a comforting sound.

Sean turned and faced her within the car, bringing his body closer to hers and causing her skin to prickle with excitement.

"Do you want me to go in and check that everywhere is safe?" he asked her, his voice delicate yet intense. He gazed deep in to her eyes, finding his way down to her soul making her feel completely vulnerable and naked before him.

"Um, yes, yes please," Erin fumbled nervously in her purse for her house keys. She got out of the car and was thankful for the cool evening air which blasted her and helped clarify her thoughts, blowing away the cobwebs of thoughts of the past which clung to her mind.

She watched Sean get out of the car and saunter over. He looked so amazingly handsome in his trousers and shirt. He stood at least a foot taller than Erin. She looked up at him and smiled nervously. They were now standing dangerously close to her home, to her bed. To the bed where she'd fantasied about his ravaging her, to the shower where she had climaxed as she touched herself and thought about him.

Placing the key in the lock, Erin turned it and opened her front door, wondering how she was going to cope with Sean on her own. She could feel her body already pulsating with desire as he stood so irresistibly close to her. What would he do if she just threw herself at him? Is that perhaps what he wanted and the checking over the house suggestion was just a rouse? She hoped so.

"Come in," she entered the hallway, flicking on the light. Sean followed her in, shutting the door behind him.

Erin stared at him, feeling her heart start to race. She'd invited Sean and his mysterious darkness into her home and all she could think about was tearing his clothes off. Perhaps her mother had been right about her all along.

***

"Nice house," Sean commented as he glanced around, peering in to the small living room, the furniture hidden from him, shrouded in darkness.

"Want me to check the rooms for you?"

The question surprised Erin. She had been hoping that checking the house had merely been a pretense to come over. She smiled, trying to hide her disappointment.

"Yeah, sure."

Sean nodded, flicked on the light switch in the living room, and began checking behind the sofa and the curtains. As Erin watched him, her eyes were drawn to his tight, firm butt which was perfectly hugged by the line of his trousers.

Sensing her eyes upon him, Sean straightened and turned back to her, smiling.

"Are you watching me?" he asked as he took a confident step toward her.

"What...um...no," Erin fumbled her response, feeling nervous. Sean looked her up and down, suddenly seeming ravenous. She felt unsteady beneath his hungry gaze and leaned against the open doorframe for support.

"You sure you weren't looking at me?" he asked again, drawing closer to her. Erin tried to calm her nerves but the way he was looking at her made her heart dance a manic medley within her chest. It was as if he was undressing her with his eyes and she liked how it felt.

Standing only inches in front of her, Sean paused, holding her steady in his unblinking gaze. Erin wanted to do the right, proper thing. She wanted to tell him that no, she wasn't looking at him and could he please continue his search of her house. Then when he had concluded, she would thank him, call him a cab, and then bid him farewell. That's what her mother would want her to do, what the rational side of her wanted to do.

But when she looked into Sean's eyes, any logic or rationale was immediately cast to the wind, left to float away, no longer needed. She saw the hunger burning beneath his eyes, the same yearning echoed in her own. She wanted him, she needed him, and she had to have him, no matter what.

They both stepped forward and Sean pulled Erin in to his arms. He leaned down and kissed her hard on the lips. Erin opened her mouth and he slid his tongue in and began massaging hers. The kiss was hot, intense, and passionate.

As they kissed, Sean's hands skillfully slid down her body and began unbuttoning her blouse. Hot with desire, Erin followed suit, reaching forward and unbuttoning his trousers.

Blouse undone, Sean pulled it from her and cast it aside. He then whipped off her bra in a move he had clearly done many times before. He gave her now exposed breasts an appreciative glance which turned Erin on, making her grow moist and desperate for him. He cupped her left breast with his strong, rough hand and then gently licked the nipple. Erin groaned with pleasure and pulled down his trousers.

Sean stepped out of his trousers, threw off his own shirt and was now only wearing his designer briefs. Erin looked hungrily at the bulge within them, delighted to see that he was just as excited by their union as she was.

He looked as good out of his clothes as Erin had imagined he would, if not better. He had a strong, muscular chest and strong, sexy arms. Watching him, a mischievous smile played on her lips as she unbuttoned her skirt and seductively stepped out of it.

Smiling at the gesture, Sean took off his briefs, revealing his giant throbbing penis. Erin glanced down at it and tried to hide her shock at its enormous girth. As she took him all in, he approached her and pushed her back on to the staircase of her small house. He started kissing her, feeling his way around her mouth with his tongue. Then he moved to kissing her neck, traveling down to her breasts, taking time to gently suck and tease each nipple as beneath him, Erin writhed and groaned in pleasure, fearing she might come before he was even in her.

Sean continued to kiss her body, planting his lips down her chest and along her stomach until he reached the obstacle of her panties. Deftly, he reached up with his strong hands and slid them off, throwing them behind him where they landed softly on the floor. As he kissed her hips and inner thighs, he used his hands to touch her, to gently finger her clitoris. He felt how wet she was and groaned with desire.

On her back on the stairs, Erin was panting, certain she was about to climax. Sean knew just where to touch her, the right spots to apply pressure. He was an experienced lover and she was reaping the rewards of all his practice.

Then, Sean ceased fingering her clitoris and instead kissed her directly on it. Erin gasped aloud at the sudden sensation, which felt unbelievably good. No one had ever made her entire body tingle the way Sean was.

Soon, Sean's tongue was searching within her, sending soft, lingering licks all over her pussy which whipped Erin into a frenzy.

"Oh my God!" she cried out, lost to the intensity of the moment. "I'm going to come!"

Moments after she'd made the declaration, she came as Sean continued to lick and tease her. She shuddered beneath him in satisfaction as his dick grew harder.

When he pulled away from her, his lips slick with her desire, the hungry look in his eyes had intensified. Erin had never been so turned on in all her life. Even though she'd just come, she immediately felt on the point of climax once again.

"Fuck my brains out," she ordered him. Sean grunted in approval and reached out and spun Erin around so that she was now looking down at the stairs. Using his hands, he pulled her up by the hips so that her back was arched and he ran his hands over her backside, savoring the curves.

Then he pulled himself close and entered her, his dick sliding in effortlessly because she was sodden. Erin let out a gasp as she felt the full extent of him within her. He was so big that he immediately hit upon her g-spot and she let out a euphoric cry.

Sean almost growled with pleasure as he began to fuck her. It was slow initially, but it quickly increased in pace. Erin squealed with delight as he fucked her upon the staircase. As the pace became more fevered, she dug her hands down into the carpet of the staircase, trying to maintain her position.

Sean's impressive size was matched by his stamina. He pounded hard against Erin for ten solid minutes. Each time she thought he was going to climax, he somehow found a second wind.

Erin came two more times before Sean let his head back and let out a long, satisfied sigh as he filled her with his passion.

***

They had sex two more times before exhaustion finally set in with the arrival of the dawn. After their initial staircase encounter, Sean carried Erin up to her bedroom, where they made love with her straddling him and then up against the wall. Both times, Erin continued to come. Previously, she hadn't even known it was possible to orgasm so many times in one night.

When they finally parted, sleep quickly took her. Tired yet satisfied, Erin fell in to a deep, dreamless sleep.

The sound of her alarm clock broke through the wall of rest and pulled her in to the present. As much as Erin tried to resist waking, the shrill alarm forced her to open her eyes and welcome the new day.

Sunlight was streaming in through the window, the blinds having not been drawn the previous night. Erin squinted in the harsh light and rubbed wearily at her eyes. Sitting up, she tried to get her bearings.

Her digital clock told her that it was seven in the morning, meaning she'd barely had an hour's worth of sleep.

"Urgh," Erin moaned, her body aching in protest as she tried to get up. The events of the night before came flooding back to her. Sean and the amazing sex. It had almost been too good to be true.

"Sean, we need to get up for work," Erin said, her mouth opening to release a great big yawn.

When Sean didn't so much as grunt in response, Erin looked across at the other side of the bed where she expected him to be sleeping, but to her surprise, the bed was empty.

"Sean?" she called out his name, wondering where he had gone. When he didn't respond she got up and pulled on her dressing gown and walked down the hall to the bathroom, thinking he'd perhaps got up for a shower. But the bathroom was empty, as were the other rooms, upstairs and down. Sean appeared to have gone.

Wandering back into the bedroom, still feeling like she was in a haze, Erin tried to make sense of what was happening. Had the previous night even happened or had it just been a dream?

The carpet burns on her elbows and kneecaps were evidence that their passionate sexual encounter had indeed happened, but then where was he? Surely he had not stolen away from the house as she slept?

Heading downstairs, back down the staircase where hours earlier, she'd had the most intense orgasm of her life, Erin checked the front door. It was unlocked. Sean had left while she was asleep.

Growing angry, she realized that not only had he left, he'd left her alone sleeping in an unlocked house when there was a killer at large, meaning that he had little to no regard for her safety.

Feeling tearful, Erin angrily slammed her front door open and shut, then turned the deadbolt. She took a moment to stand against the wall, trying not to let her emotions overwhelm her. She just couldn't understand why he would leave without so much as a goodbye. Did he think their night together was a mistake? Surely not. Erin could not have been alone in thinking how amazing the sex had been.

Whatever the reasoning, it didn't matter. Sean was gone and Erin was alone. Saddened by his departure she went upstairs to shower with slow, heavy footsteps. She kept re-running the events of the previous night. Had she said something wrong, appeared too clingy? They'd barely even spoken. They'd not had chance between the numerous bouts of sex they enjoyed together.

As Erin got in to the shower and allowed the hot water to pass over her, washing away the final remnants of him upon her skin, she feared that inviting him into her house had been a mistake.

Her penchant for bad boys brought her nothing but grief. None of her unions with men who were troubled ever ended happily. It as though she was drawn to their troubled nature like a moth to a flame, powerless to resist and end the cycle.

Erin knew from past painful experience that only the guys with something to hide leave you as you are sleeping. The more eager they are to leave, the darker the secret they are trying to keep.

Do you like this book? Be sure to check other books in this series

Crescent Moon - Volume 2

Full Moon - Volume 3

Phases of Passion (Trilogy Bundle)

***

Taming Suzanna

***

Synopsis

Suzanna Wheeler enjoys the attention she receives from the men who work on her father's ranch. So, when her Daddy tasks his best foreman, the handsome and rugged Colton Stevens, with the chore of keeping an eye on her, she isn't the least bit happy about it. Willful and defiant, she is determined to keep doing whatever she wants, even when that leads to trouble and danger. Passion and love erupt in this exciting tale of a rancher's daughter who wants to experience life's taboos. Is Colton the one to tame her wild heart?

***

Chapter One

Suzanna Wheeler quietly tiptoed down the stairs in her socks, holding her favorite pair of boots in her hands. She knew their hard soles would make too much noise on the wooden staircase of her family's ranch house, and she desperately didn't want to wake her father.

Daddy was a good man who meant well, but he thought a girl's place was in the home and not out riding horses. At the age of twenty-one, Suzanna had grown well beyond being a girl into a fully-fledged woman, and if the looks she received from Daddy's ranch hands were any indication, she was quite an attractive one.

Suzanna wasn't the kind of girl to be coy. She knew full well the effect she had on men when she walked into the field wearing a thin white t-shirt stretched tightly over her ample breasts. She also knew how they liked to watch her ass move when she wore her jeans just a little too tight. With a naughty, crooked grin, she had to admit that she liked the attention. It made her feel alive and sexy to feel their eyes upon her that way.

Of course, their eyes were the only thing anyone ever laid upon her. It was no secret that Daddy didn't want anyone deflowering his little princess. To make sure no one tried, he saddled his most trusted foreman with the task of keeping an eye on her.

"You don't pay me to be a babysitter!" she had overheard Colton Stevens shouting at her father, as only he had the guts to do.

"I sure as hell do!" Daddy's voice sounded as forceful as she'd ever heard it. She had leaned against the barn door, curious to hear who would win this battle of wills. Daddy said to Colton, "You babysit my horses, my cattle, and all the ranch hands who work under you. Well, now I'm telling you to babysit my most valued possession of all, Suzy!"

"Damn it Sir, I don't want to disrespect you, but your daughter is a full-grown woman with a mind of her own. I'm not going to be able to stop her from doing whatever she puts her mind to around here."

"Well, you'd better try. I know she's got the spirit of a wild Mustang sometimes, but until I find the man who can tame her, I'm counting on you to make sure she stays safe and pure. I don't care if you have to hogtie her to the back of your horse! I want to know that my little girl will be wearing white on the day I walk her down the aisle, and if she can't, you'll be answering to me for it!"

Suzanna heard her father's voice crack with emotion at the end of his speech and felt a flutter of guilt that her beloved Daddy held such strong feelings for her wedding day. Obviously, the rare display of emotion touched Colton too, for his voice softened when he said, "Yes, Sir. You can count on me to keep an eye on Suzanna for you."

"Better make it both eyes," Daddy joked to lighten the moment. "I know what a troublemaker my little angel can be."

"Amen to that," Colton said, and Suzanna felt her cheeks flush with rage that the two men were making jokes at her expense. How dare Daddy order his best foreman to act as her babysitter and how could Colton accept the role with such a cavalier attitude. She wasn't some doll they could keep locked in the house until the day her father found a suitable man to marry her! She was a flesh and blood woman with desires and dreams. She would do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and no one could stop her, starting right now!

In the months that followed, Suzanna had made it her mission to foil Daddy and Colton's attempts at watching her as often as she could. She'd gotten quite good at sneaking out of the house and away from prying eyes, although Colton had proven to be a worthy adversary. Somehow, he managed to always be one step ahead of her with that smug grin on his handsome face. He absolutely infuriated her.

It wasn't enough that Colton was smart and able to outwit her at every turn; but the guy was undeniably the most handsome man in the county. Years of working as a ranch hand had given him a toned body and a muscular physique. His skin was tanned to perfection, setting off his deep green eyes and wavy brown hair. Just looking at him made Suzanna feel weak in the knees, which was totally frustrating, given the fact that all he wanted to do in life was protect her virginity. To make matters worse, he had a heart of gold that was utterly impossible to resist. She'd seen him save a dying mare by helping her birth a breach colt and he was deeply devoted and loyal to her father. If she didn't despise Colton Stevens, Suzanna knew that she would love him.

"Good morning, Miss Wheeler. Off for a pre-dawn stroll today?" Suzanna clutched her boots and stifled a yelp at the sound of the deep male voice. She turned from the stairs to see Colton himself sitting at her family's kitchen table, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

Outsmarted again! Suzanna tried to look casual and unperturbed as she sat in a chair next to him and began pulling on her boots. She said to him, "I thought I'd get an early start this morning. I heard you say you wanted to check the fence line for gaps and broken posts on the west side of the cattle pasture today."

Colton grinned charmingly as he poured her a cup of coffee and said, "I did say that, but not to you. I was going to send Randy and Mike out to do that. I believe I told you that your father wanted you to stay in the ranch house today to meet with the suppliers."

Suzanna took the cup of coffee he handed her and pouted at it. Angrily, she said, "Daddy doesn't need me to meet with the suppliers. He hasn't changed his order with them in years! He just wants to keep me locked in the house like Rapunzel in her tower. Come on, Colton, you've been following me. You know I'm capable of so much more than what Daddy gives me credit for! Let me do something! Let me be of real help working on the ranch!"

"Well you can ride better than half the men working under me, that's for damn sure," Colton said with honest appreciation. "You're good with the animals and you're good with your hands, too. I just can't do it though, Suzanna. Your father would fire me and throw me out on my ass if I let you work in the field. You stay put, and that's that!"

"Colton, this is a load of bull!" Suzanna yelled at him, and slammed her coffee cup onto the table. "You can't make me stay here!"

Colton rose from the table with slow movements, deliberately showing her that he was in control and not the least bit riled by her hissy fit. He finished his coffee, rinsed his cup in the sink, put his hat on his head, and strolled casually to the door. Then he looked at her and said in voice as smooth as honey, "Miss Wheeler, if you set one foot in that field today, I will find you and give you a spanking you won't soon forget, young lady."

Then he closed the door firmly behind him. Suzanna paced angrily out of the kitchen table and into the dining room, fuming with rage. Determination set it and she came to a halt in front of the large mirror in the dining room. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but it only enhanced the beauty of her face, with her delicate features, healthy tan skin, and sparkling blue eyes. Her long blonde hair was pulled neatly into a single braid that hung down her back clear to her waist. Her breasts were heaving slightly and she could see the outline of her nipples protruding from her white cotton blouse. It made her realize how aroused she had become fighting with Colton.

"I'll go where I please! Let him spank me if he wants to!" Suzanna said brazenly to her reflection in the mirror and immediately felt a tingling in her loins. The idea of feeling his hands upon her in such an intimate way excited her in a way she didn't fully understand. Suzanna grabbed her hat off the coat rack, placed it firmly on her head, and strode purposefully out the front door of the ranch house. She was going to check that west fence for gaps whether he liked it or not! As Suzanna mounted her horse and headed out, she found herself hoping that Colton would indeed find her and give her that spanking he had promised.

***

Chapter Two

Colton Stevens tried to get Suzanna out of his thoughts as he supervised the ranch hands. He knew his boss's only daughter was strictly off-limits, but why did she have to be so damn sexy to look at! It took every ounce of will power he had not to take her into his arms and kiss her every time he saw her.

At twenty-eight years old, Colton knew he was nearly a decade older than the lovely filly, but he'd seen the fire in her blue eyes and he knew that she felt the same sparks for him that he felt for her. It was part of the reason he was so hard on her sometimes. Maybe, if he could make her hate him, he could help to ensure that nothing happened between them. There had been more than one occasion over the past months when she leaned really close to him that he'd thought they might kiss. Luckily, they'd been interrupted by her father.

That was the other reason he was so hard on her. Colton had never had much of a relationship with his own father, but Jeremiah Wheeler had taken him in, given him a job bucking hay, and taught him everything he knew about working on the ranch. He'd discovered he had a real knack for it and Mr. Wheeler had always treated him right. He had promoted him quickly up the ranks, and paid him a good wage. Colton didn't agree with the strict rein Mr. Wheeler wanted to keep on his daughter Suzanna, but he respected and loved the man too much not to follow his wishes. Even if it meant denying himself the one girl he knew he was falling in love with.

Thinking of Suzanna again, Colton figured he'd left her to stew in her own anger long enough and headed back to the ranch house to invite her out to help with the west fence. He wished he could say he was surprised to find she had fled the coop, but once his anger died down enough, he realized he should have known better than to leave her alone for so long. He only had himself to blame that she had run off.

Mounting his horse, he followed the tracks that he knew belonged to her copper-colored mare, Lucky Penny. They led him right to the fence line of the west fence, which didn't surprise him, but what did surprise him was that they didn't end there. Midpoint along the fence, a huge gap could be found where one of the posts had been knocked down. Hoof prints in the soft dirt clearly indicated that one of the Wheeler's cattle had escaped through the gap. Worse than that, another set of hoof prints clearly indicated that Lucky Penny had gone through that same gap. No doubt Suzanna herself was on that horse, heroically thinking she could find the cow on her own.

"Crap!" Colton swore a string of curse words aloud as he urged his own horse through the gap and out into the Montana wilderness. Suzanna's tracks were easy to follow and he had no doubt that he'd find her, but there were dangers out here that she didn't know about. A gang of rustlers was reported to be hiding in the area, which could be very dangerous. If that weren't bad enough, several ranch hands claimed to have seen a mountain lion prowling the plains just two nights ago. Colton hadn't wanted to worry Mr. Wheeler or Suzanna, so he had told the men to keep the information to themselves, but now that Suzanna had wandered out of the safety of the fence, he wondered at the wisdom of his decision.

"Too late to change it now. What's done is done." Colton rationalized to himself aloud, making his horse's ears perk up at the sound of his voice. Patting the animal's neck reassuringly, Colton said "Don't worry, boy. We'll find her before anything bad happens to her. We've got to!"

Suddenly, a shrill scream echoed through the air, which Colton recognized instantly as being Suzanna's. He spurred his horse into a gallop, following the sound.

He heard the sound of oncoming hooves and suddenly Lucky Penny appeared from over a hill, running toward them at full speed, but without a rider on her back.

"Where's Suzanna?" Colton asked the horse as it ran past him. The terrified animal obviously had no answer for him. Shaking his head, Colton spurred his own horse onward even faster. Suddenly, the sound of a gun being fired pierced the air and he guided his horse over the hill just in time to see her.

There was Suzanna with a rifle butted against her shoulder and her hands on the trigger. Smoke rose from the freshly-fired barrel and the mountain lion lay dead in the grass, just three feet from where she stood. It looked like it had been in mid-pounce when it died.

Colton leapt from his horse and took Suzanna into his arms, holding her tightly to him. Suzanna melted into his chest, letting him hold her until her trembling eased and the pounding of her heart slowed.

"My God, that thing nearly killed you! Suzanna, are you all right?" Colton asked with true concern. He caressed her check with his hands, guiding her face to look up at him.

"I'm okay." Suzanna said, her voice still sounding tremulous. "Lucky Penny started acting like she smelled a predator so I grabbed my rifle. Then, out of nowhere, she threw me and ran off. I screamed as I hit the earth, but I managed to keep hold of my gun. I knew something really bad must be out there for her to bolt like that and sure enough, that mountain lion started stalking me. I knew I'd only have one shot at it, so I'd better make it count!"

"You sure did! You nailed it right between the eyes. I'm proud of you!" Colton said, looking deep into eyes with all the love and admiration he felt in his heart. Unable to stop himself, he bent forward and kissed her on the lips. They were soft and sweet, just like he knew they'd be. She parted her lips for him, allowing his tongue access into her mouth, and they drank each other in, hungrily. Hot, wet, and insistently, they kissed with all the love and passion they'd felt for each other all these months but had to keep hidden. There was no point in hiding it anymore. Life was too short, as they had both realized in that moment.

When at last they pulled themselves apart from each other's embrace, Colton saw that Suzanna was beaming with happiness. She brushed the loose tendrils of hair that had escaped her braid back behind her ear and said softly, "I thought you'd be mad at me for coming out here all alone."

"Oh, I'm mad at you, too." Colton said, but there was humor dancing in his eyes as he said it. The look of relief in his face made it clear that he was just happy she had survived the cougar attack. He said, "I should take your father up on his advice and hog tie you for running off the way you did."

"I thought you'd said the punishment would be a spanking," Suzanna said teasingly, her voice thick with arousal.

"We could do both." Colton said, arching his eyebrow playfully, then he swept her into his arms and carried her over the hill to the shady valley below.

***

Chapter Three

A soft moan of pleasure escaped Suzanna's lips as Colton kissed his way down her neck to her chest. They were completely alone in the valley, shaded by giant trees and shielded by the tall grasses. It was the perfect place to let lose their passion for each other before returning home to tell everyone about the cougar.

Colton's thick fingers fumbled clumsily with the delicate buttons of Suzanna's white blouse and she helped him by simply pulling it off over her head.

She hadn't worn a bra that day; her young breasts were firm despite being so large, and she preferred to go without one. She smiled as Colton sucked in his breath in admiration at the beauty of her naked flesh.

"You are more beautiful than a Montana sunset," he whistled. He cupped them in his hands, feeling the weight of them, and gently squeezed and massaged them. Then he brought his lips to them, kissing every inch of them while his thumbs rubbed against her nipples, making them harden with arousal.

"I want you to make love to me," Suzanna whispered as she ran her fingers through his hair, holding his head to her bosom for fear he might stop.

"We can't," Colton said in a harsh whisper. "It would be wrong."

Suzanna reached down and found the zipper of his well-worn jeans and pulled it open. Colton's erection sprang free, and she knelt down in the grass and rubbed it against her cheek affectionately. Colton groaned with pleasure as she delicately touched her lips to his throbbing member and kissed the length of him. When she came to the tip, she opened her mouth wide as if to take him in, but it was just a tease and instead she pleasured him with her tongue, licking every inch of him instead.

"Will you make love to me now?" she taunted.

"We can't," Colton insisted. "It's forbidden. Get dressed, I'm taking you home."

Suzanna took his erection fully into her mouth then, making loud moans of pleasure escape his lips. She massaged his balls as she sucked, hoping to make him climax. Colton realized too late what was about to happen, and despite his best efforts, he lost control.

His body shuttered violently as his orgasm rocked through him. When it had finished, Suzanna smiled with satisfaction, pleased that her lips had been enough to bring him to climax.

"You are a very naughty girl!" Colton admonished, but that only made her grin wider. Unable to resist her playfulness, Colton shook his finger at her and said with mock displeasure, "You ran away from the house, left the safety of the fence, took off your blouse, and now you've made me climax. You are very naughty girl, indeed."

"Does this mean you're going to punish me now?" Suzanna said, her eyes dancing with delight. Clearly, she wanted him to. Colton saw no reason not to participate in the game she was asking him to play. After all, she deserved some sexual pleasure after the incredible orgasm she had already given him.

"I'm going to punish you for your disobedience, young lady, and give you a lesson you won't forget," Colton said. He tried to make his voice sound harsh, but it was hard to do with the laughter and delight sparkling in both their eyes.

Colton looked around for a good way to carry out the game. The giant shade tree above them seemed like the best choice. A very low-hanging branch stuck out horizontally from the trunk a few feet above their heads. Colton grabbed a length of rope from his saddle pack and looped it over the branch.

"Come here." Colton ordered Suzanna and willingly she came and stood beneath the branch. "Give me your hands."

Suzanna happily complied and Colton bound her wrists together with the rope, being careful not to bind them too tight. He pulled the rope, raising her hands high above her head, and secured them there with a knot. Next, he took her cotton blouse and tied it over her eyes like a blindfold. Suzanna was now completely at his mercy, unable to see or move. The thought of it made them both aroused with passion.

Still, Colton was worried about the woman he loved. In a gentle voice, he made sure that she liked the game and wanted to keep going. She assured him that she'd been fantasizing about doing this very thing for a long time. They created a safe word, "red light". If ever Suzanna wanted to end the bondage game, she would say "red light", and Colton would immediately stop. With as much fun as they were having right now, they both knew they would never need the safe word, but it was always good to have precautions.

With the rules of the game properly set, they continued to play. Colton admired his captive's body; her long braid hung down her bare back. The blindfold covered her eyes and her naked breasts were held high by her up stretched arms. The only clothing on her body was her tight jeans, which accentuated her round, firm buttocks. Colton smiled and said, "I'm going to punish you now, for being naughty. Are you ready?"

"Yes." Suzanna answered honestly. She could feel her entire body tingling in anticipation, wondering what he would do to her. Suddenly, she felt a firm slap on her buttocks that made her yelp in surprise and pain. It was followed by another and then another. Colton was spanking her with firm slaps of his palm. It radiated through her body, making her shiver with sexual excitement. Her panties became wet with the juices of her arousal and her nipples puckered.

"Are you going to be good girl from now on?" he asked, as his palm came down against her round buttocks, causing it to vibrate deliciously.

"Yes!" she cried out, delighting in the painful pleasure she felt radiating through her body.

"When you address me, call me Sir!" he commanded, bringing his hand down again, and then again.

"Yes, Sir!" she cried out.

Colton's palm began to throb and he knew she'd had enough punishment. The game was meant to be erotic and fun; he didn't want to overdo things and actually hurt her.

He ceased spanking her and gently massaged her round buttocks, soothing away the pain. Then, he unbuttoned her jeans and slowly pulled them down her legs. Eagerly, she stepped out of them, helping him to undress her. She stood with her arms stretched high above her head, tied to the tree branch, wearing nothing now but her cotton underwear, soaked with her juices.

Colton pulled them off too and Suzanna drew in her breath, hoping he would make love to her now. She had known for many months that he was the man she wanted to give her virginity to and now was the moment she wanted that to happen.

"Spread your legs apart. Wider." Colton commanded and Suzanna willingly obeyed.

With the blindfold keeping her darkness, she wondered what he would do next and gasped in surprise and pleasure when she felt his tongue upon her most intimate folds. He made love to her there with his lips, tongue, and fingers, introducing her to pleasures she'd only known by her own hand before that moment. Whenever she had masturbated, she always fantasized that she was making love to Colton. Now, that dream was finally coming true.

Colton had fantasized about this moment too, ever since she'd become a woman at the age of eighteen. As he pleasured her with his mouth and fingers, he found she was even more delicious than he had imagined and devoted himself to the task whole-heartedly. It was an easy chore, for Suzanna was so aroused by the spanking that she neared orgasm quickly.

"I'm going to climax!" she gasped between ragged breaths. She'd given herself orgasms alone in her bedroom, but they were nothing like this. Having an orgasm with Colton was something far more intense and much more wonderful.

Abruptly, Colton withdrew his fingers and he said harshly, "No, don't climax until I give you permission!"

"Yes, Sir," Suzanna said, not knowing how she could possibly stop herself.

Colton resumed making love to her with his fingers and mouth, stopping periodically to let her catch her breath and saying, "Don't climax yet. I'll tell you when."

Soon, Suzanna was whimpering with desire and begging him. "Please, Sir. Please let me climax."

Her entire body was vibrating with sexual energy and ready to explode in orgasm. Colton untied the rope that bound her wrists and pulled the blindfold from her eyes. She blinked, regaining her vision, and saw that he had grown another erection. Colton lay on his back in the tall grass and said to her, "Okay, you've been a good girl. You may have your reward now. Orgasm for me."

With uncontrolled passion, Suzanna leaped upon him, knocking him to the ground. He entered her gently, easily pushing past her natural barrier, because of her high level of arousal. He thrust softly, not wanting to hurt the young virgin, but he had prepared her so well for the moment that she felt no pain and only wanted to achieve her orgasm.

She bucked wildly beneath him, releasing all the passion she'd been forced to contain when he had her bound. Her orgasm came quickly and powerfully, and she clawed at his back as she cried out in ecstasy. It was the most incredible moment of her life and she reveled in it.

Colton wanted to make love to her slowly, but her passion was hard to resist and as she climaxed beneath him, he finally let himself go and thrust with his full force. He groaned with pleasure as he spilled his seed inside her. Finally, he rolled off of her, to lie beside her in the grass, both of the breathless and grinning widely.

"Now let that be a lesson, young lady," Colton teased, wagging a finger at her in mock admonishment.

Suzanna couldn't help be smile at him. She said, "I think I'm going to have to be naughty a lot more often, so long as you'll do that to me again."

Colton took her into his arms and kissed her, saying, "I'll do anything to you that you want me to. You may have played the submissive in our little game just now, but in truth, I'm the one who's wrapped around your finger. I love you and I'd do anything in the world for you."

"I know you would," Suzanna said softly, with tears of joy in her eyes. "That's why you're the only one I ever wanted to play this game with. I love you, too."

They moved toward each other to kiss again, when suddenly Colton's horse whinnied from where they'd left it tied to a tree atop the hill. The sound brought them both back to reality. Further games would have to wait until another time. Right now, they had more urgent matters to tend to.

***

Chapter Four

As Suzanna pulled her clothes back on, Colton repacked the rope into his saddle bag and looked up into the afternoon sky.

"The sun looks to be at high noon. We'd better notify the Bureau of Wildlife that you were attacked by a cougar and had to shoot it."

Suzanna nodded in agreement. She walked up the hill to get one final look at the deceased creature. It was a beautiful animal, with soft tan fur and a strong muscular build. She guessed correctly that it must weigh about 120 pounds. If she hadn't fired her rifle when she had, it would have latched onto her neck and killed her within seconds. She knew she had no choice but to shoot it, but something troubled her about the whole incident.

"Mountain lions don't usually attack humans, do they?" she asked Colton, as he checked his horse and made sure it was ready to ride.

"No, it's pretty rare, but it does happen on occasion," he said. Suzanna noticed the animal had a deep cut on its front paw, as if it had escaped a trap of some sort, and pointed it out to Colton. He shrugged and said, "A brush with poachers would certainly have made the animal fearful of humans. If there are poachers in the area, that's all the more reason to get home. Now come on; saddle up!"

Colton patted the saddle on the back on his horse, indicating for Suzanna to mount the animal so they could go home. She ignored him and looked harder at the beautiful cougar lying deceased in the grass. The thought of poachers senselessly killing animals for greed sickened and infuriated her. Then something caught her attention that she hadn't noticed before and her hands covered her mouth, stifling a gasp.

"Oh my God! It's a female and its teats are engorged!" She cried out to Colton.

He understood the implications immediately and said "That means she's a mother and she's nursing her cubs. Come on, they've got to be nearby! Maybe we can find them!"

They climbed onto the back of his horse together with Suzanna in front holding her rifle, and Colton behind her, holding the reins. He set the horse on a very slow walk, carefully checking for any sign of the orphaned cubs.

"Cougars can have up to six cubs in a litter, but typically they only have two." Colton said to Suzanna as they searched. They'd been at it for hours and the sun was starting to get lower in the sky. He said, "Their mother won't have traveled very far from away them to hunt. We'd better call it quits and head home now."

"Look! There!" Suzanna pointed excitedly then let her hand fall. Shaking her head in disappointment she said ,"Never mind, that's just a dust-colored rock."

Colton chuckled and said, "The cubs aren't going to be the same tan color as their mother. Mountain lion cubs are born with black spots all over their bodies for camouflage and lose them as they grow up. Since their mother is still nursing, we can assume these cubs are probably less than six months old and will still be covered with spots."

"I knew that," Suzanna said and leaned back against him, so she could kiss him. His left hand gripped her waist and she guided it upward to touch her breast. Suddenly, Suzanna felt something poking her from behind and knew she had given him another erection. It made her smile to know she had that kind of power over him. Acting coy, she said innocently, "So how do we find the cubs if their camouflaged to blend into their environment?"

Shifting uncomfortably, Colton said, "The mother will have formed a den, probably in a cave or rock alcove. She'll have lined it with dry grass to provide warmth for them. We've already searched the nearby rock formations."

Suzanna reached back and massaged his erection through his jeans and said, "I've found a rock-hard formation right here. Perhaps I should investigate it."

Colton grabbed her hand and said, "Not now, naughty girl. I already gave you pleasure for the day. Now, we've got to get home before the sun sets."

As much as Suzanna wanted to play, she knew he was right. They'd been searching all afternoon and the sun was already getting low in the sky. Submissively, she lowered her eyes and said, "Yes, Sir."

"That's a good girl," Colton smiled and kissed her neck as a reward. It sent tingles of pleasure shivering down her spine and she giggled in delight.

"Oh, maybe being a good girl is just as fun as being a bad one," she joked.

"Maybe," Colton taunted. "Keep being good and you'll find out."

"Yes Sir," she replied and Colton rewarded her again with a new round of kisses along her neck that ended with him nibbling on her ear. Then he suddenly stopped, jerked his head up, and pulled the horse to a halt.

"Do you hear that?" he asked her, cocking his head and peering into the distance.

"What? Do you hear the cubs?" Suzanna asked excitedly.

"No, it's running water," Colton said, and instantly Suzanna's eyes lit up, too. They rode the horse toward the sound until they came upon a small stream, rushing merrily along the valley. Eagerly, Suzanna dismounted the horse and splashed the cold water on her hot cheeks to cool herself. Then she cupped her hands and drank heavily. When at last she'd slaked her thirst, she smacked her lips happily.

"I didn't realize how thirsty I'd become until I saw that water," she said to Colton, as he sat on a rock in the shade, watching her. His eyes danced with merriment and she knew that he was laughing at the spectacle she made. Glaring at him, she splashed water in his direction and said, "What's so funny?"

"You got your blouse all soaked." Colton explained his amusement and Suzanna looked down to see that he was right. Her white cotton blouse was completely soaked through, flaunting the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra. The cold dampness of the fabric made her nipples pucker into taunt nubs that made him want to take them into his mouth.

Seeing his arousal pressing against his jeans, Suzanna felt playful again. Twisting the tail of her braid in her hands, she said with mock contrition, "Uh oh, Sir. I'm afraid I've gotten my clothes wet."

"Uh oh, indeed," Colton said, delighted to play the game with her again. "That is very naughty of you. Why did you do a thing like that? Do you want me to spank you again?"

Suzanna smiled sexily at him and said, "It's not that I wanted to be naughty, it's just that I felt so dirty. I really needed a bath."

Colton's eyes lit up. He got up from the rock he was sitting on and approached her at the stream, saying, "Oh, you are indeed a dirty girl. Take off your clothes and I'll bathe you."

"Yes, Sir." Suzanna stripped for him, seductively removing her clothes piece by piece while he watched. Then she removed his clothes for him too, covering his body with kisses as his flesh became exposed.

When they were both naked, they climbed into the rushing stream together. The cool water on their hot skin was exhilarating and heightened their excitement for each other. Colton's hands felt warm and firm as he ran them up and down her body, massaging, caressing, and fondling every part of her.

When he entered her with his manhood, her slot was hot and rippling. He moved with slow thrusts, as the cold water rushed around them.

"Yes, faster!" Suzanna cried out in pleasure, as she moved her hips in unison with his.

"Naughty girl. Don't forget I'm the one in charge here," Colton admonished playfully. He deliberately slowed the speed of his thrusts, just to tease her.

Suzanna writhed and moaned, every nerve of her body pulsating with pleasure. Then, suddenly, Colton increased the speed of his thrusts, pounding deeply into her with fast, powerful movements that made her cry out in ecstasy.

Suzanna orgasmed loudly; her cries of exquisite pleasure echoing in the Montana sky. Colton shuddered and groaned as he climaxed along with her. It was one of the most intense orgasms either of them had ever had, heightened by the cold water and their love for each other.

When at last it was finished, they bathed in the water, cleaning the juices of their passion from their bodies, and lay in the sun to dry.

"That was amazing," Colton said, holding her hand as they lay on the warm rocks and felt the sun on their bodies.

"It was," Suzanna agreed, then laughed and said, "Just don't tell anybody I agreed with you about something."

"Don't worry; I won't. Besides, nobody would believe me if I told them that you and I had stopped bickering and had become lovers."

"Is that what we are?" Suzanna asked, stroking his bare chest and gazing at him with adoring eyes.

"Well, I know I'm in love with you," Colton said tenderly and kissed her on the lips.

"I know I'm in love with you too," Suzanna said, beaming at him. Then suddenly she jerked up her head and whispered, "No! It can't be!"

Colton cocked his head and joked, "No, you can't be in love with me?"

Suzanna smacked playfully at him and said, "No, it can't be that I heard what I think I heard."

"Why, what did you hear?" Colton asked, curious now. Suzanna had already gotten up off the rock and was pulling on her clothes. Knowing full well that she'd leave him behind, Colton quickly started pulling on his jeans, too.

Suzanna smiled brightly and said, "Behind that tall grass across the stream! I think I heard the sound of cubs mewling! Come on!"

Suzanna pulled on her other boot, took off running toward the tall grass, and disappeared over the ridge where he could no longer see her.

"Wait! You don't know what dangers might be over there!" Colton called after her, but it was too late. Her scream already filled the air.

***

Chapter Five

"Suzanna!" Colton yelled, his heart pounding with fear. He chased after her, running through the tall grass until he crested the ridge and went tumbling down the same ravine where she had fallen just moments before.

His body rolled over rocks and crashed through brambles, until he finally came to a painful stop at the bottom of the slope, right next to Suzanna.

"Are you all right?" she asked him, as he pulled himself into a sitting position beside her.

"I think so," he grumbled but one look at her made him smile with barely-contained laughter. Her hair was in complete disarray, mud smudged her face, and her clothes were in tatters. He thought she'd never looked bore beautiful. He plucked a broken twig from her hair and said, "Are you okay?"

"Shhhh!" Suzanna said harshly and pressed her fingers to her lips in a silencing gesture. "It's louder down here. Do you hear it?"

Colton cocked his head and listened, and then his eyes flew open wide. She was right! He could hear it now too. "Cubs mewling!"

"I knew I heard it!" Suzanna said and started to get up onto her feet, but Colton grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back down. Trying to wrench her arm free, she glared at him and said "What the hell are you doing? Let's go find them!"

Colton held his finger to his lips in the shushing gesture and whispered "We're not the only ones looking."

Suzanna followed his gaze and gasped when she saw it too. A jeep was rolling up from a distance with a large cage fashioned to the back. "Poachers!"

"They'll be here in a matter of minutes. We've got to hurry!" Colton said and for once, Suzanna agreed with him.

The mewling sound was coming from their left and Suzanna headed that direction hoping she could protect the defenseless babies, but Colton shook his head. "No time for them! We've got to hide or we're as good as dead!"

Colton moved quickly toward a pile of boulders about twenty feet away, expecting Suzanna to follow him. When he reached the safety of the cover, he turned around to find she was nowhere to be seen. Shaking his head, Colton realized the defiant filly must have gone to protect the cubs.

"Damn it!" he hissed under his breath. There was no time to stop her now, the jeep had just pulled up and four men armed with guns climbed out and began stomping through the grass.

"I thought you said they were here!" the largest of the men barked.

"They're here. I saw the mother cougar leave them here when she went hunting for the day. I can't believe she escaped my trap," a younger, skinnier man said.

"That's because your traps suck!" a third man with a black hat pushed the skinny man roughly on the back and knocked him down into the grass.

"They don't suck! You just didn't set it right and the spring wasn't tight enough" the skinny man got back to his feet with a scowl. Searching through the grass again, he said, "We were able to follow the blood trail though and we still got her. I just wonder who the hell shot her."

"I don't care who shot her!" the large man barked. "The important thing is they were stupid enough to leave the body where we could take it. We'll still get our money for all the pieces when we hack her up."

"Yeah, but we'll get even more money for those cubs of hers if we can find them. Now where the hell are they?"

"They're here! Just shut up and listen. We'll be able to hear them a lot easier than you can spot them!"

"I think I found something even more interesting than a couple of cubs. What are you doing here, darling?"

Suzanna stood up from where she'd been hiding in the tall grass, with a tiny sleeping mountain lion cub tucked under each arm. Colton felt his heart catch right in his throat and his heart was pounding so hard he thought it would explode. He couldn't let them hurt her! His rifle was still lying in the grass where he had tumbled down the ravine, but even if he had it, he was still outgunned four against one. He had to think of a better way to save the woman he loved.

Of course, Suzanna was never one to be the damsel in distress and there was no doubt she was thinking of a plan to escape all on her own. Colton just had to try and determine what her plan was and help her the best he could.

"You've got no right to sell these cubs!" Suzanna shouted angrily to the men.

"It don't matter if we have the right to or not; there ain't nobody here to stop us," the large man said, sauntering toward them.

"Yeah, well, my father's men are the ones who shot the mother cougar and they're combing these hills right now, looking for the cubs. If you were smart, you'd just get the hell out of here right now."

"I don't think anyone has ever accused Jasper here of being smart, have they?" the large man slapped the man holding the revolver on the shoulder, clearly indicating that he was Jasper.

Jasper shook his head and said, "No, I can't say no one ever has. I might just be dumb enough to shoot this thing off accidentally."

Jasper cocked the hammer back on the gun and took aim right at Suzanna's heart. Holding her head up high in defiance, Suzanna said, "Well, that would be dumb because you'd be missing out on a hell of lot more money than you could get with just these cubs."

The large man put his hand on top of Jaspers, indicating for him to hold fire. He eyed Suzanna harshly and said, "What makes you say that?"

"I don't think you know who my father is. He's Jeremiah Wheeler. He donates tons of money to animal conservation groups. Let me take these cubs home and he'll pay you a reward for saving them that's ten times bigger than what you'd get on the black market."

"And what would he pay to get you back? I bet I could get a ransom that was a thousand times bigger? Perhaps even a million times bigger."

"My Daddy won't give in to kidnappers! If you lay one hand on me, he'll hunt you down and perform a good 'ole-fashioned lynching! Your only hope is to let me go and collect a reward for animal rescue! That's it! Take it or leave it!"

"Well, since you put it that way darling, I think we'll take it; as in taking you!"

The large man grabbed for Suzanna and she lashed at him, kicking and punching with all her strength. Colton winced, knowing how much a wallop from her could hurt, but then he realized she was providing him with the distraction he needed. He crawled through the tall grass at top speed toward her rifle, where it lay in the mud.

By the time he reached it, all four men had entered into the fray and finally managed to pin Suzanna down. They tied her hands behind her back and then bound her feet together at the ankles. Still, she thrashed mightily in her bounds and managed to slam her head into the nose of one of them.

"That bitch broke my nose!" the man hollered, trying to stop the bleeding.

"That's all right; we'll get our money's worth out of her old man. Throw her in the back of the jeep and let's get her out of the open."

Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot rang through the air and the front tire of the jeep was blown out. The four men looked around with their guns pointed in the air, wondering who had just fired on them, but Suzanna grinned, knowing it was Colton.

"I told you, my father's men are going to lynch you. Now get the hell out of here while you still can!" Suzanna taunted smugly.

"She's right! Let's get the hell out of here!" One of the men jumped into the driver's seat of the jeep while Jasper helped the man with the broken nose climb into the back. They yelled at the large man, "Come on! Let's go!"

"Cowards! I ain't letting this bitch get the best of me!" the large man shouted angrily. Another shot rang out, hitting the jeep's other front tire. The man behind the wheel slammed his foot onto the gas pedal and the lopsided vehicle raced into the distance as fast as it could go on two flat tires.

The large man shouted curses after them, and then turned sharply on Suzanna. Grabbing her by the hair, he pulled her roughly onto her feet and held her tightly against his chest like a shield. He pulled a knife from his belt and held it to her throat, making her cry out in fear.

Staring at the ravine above, the large man called out, "I know there ain't a whole posse out there! My guess is there's just one man up there! Probably your boyfriend that you were taking for a summer romp! Well, fun time is over! Show yourself lover boy, or she's dead!"

"Don't do it, Colton!" Suzanna shouted out in a terrified voice. "Stay up on the ridge where you're safe! Ride home to Daddy and get help!"

The large man grinned; smugly satisfied that he had been right. He kept his eyes trained up on the ravine. As soon as he caught sight of the girl's boyfriend, he'd fire on him. Then he'd kill the girl and dump both their bodies in wilderness.

Colton furrowed his brow. Suzanna knew he wasn't on the ridge; then the brilliance of her ploy hit him and he thanked his lucky stars that he'd been blessed with such a wonderful girlfriend. Her ruse kept the poachers attention focused in the wrong direction and made it easy for Colton to move in the grass below.

With careful aim, Colton positioned his sights. Then he took a deep breath for courage and pulled the trigger. The large man screamed out in pain as his finger was shot clean off. The gun he had been holding fell to the ground and he gripped his, trying to stop the bleeding and the pain.

Suzanna picked up the gun from the ground and pointed at her former abductor just as Colton came running up to her from out of the tall grass.

"Nice shooting," she smiled proudly at the man she loved.

"I couldn't let them ransom you to your father," Colton said with a charming wink. "Then the old man would know that you'd been out of house and I promised him I'd make sure you stayed put."

"Yeah, well I didn't," Suzanna said, leaning in to give him a passionate kiss.

"No, you were definitely a very naughty girl today and look at all the trouble it caused. We've got two rescued cubs we have to turn over to the Bureau of Wildlife that will surely go to some preservation zoo. Plus we've got this jerk, bleeding from a missing finger that we have to take to the hospital and then have arrested for poaching and attempted kidnapping. So much for my quiet day of mending fences."

"Sorry about that. Perhaps you should punish me for it tonight, when we get back from filing a police report."

"Oh, I'm going to punish you just the way you want me to, as often as you want me to," Colton grinned. He pulled Suzanna into his arms, crushing her breasts against his muscular chest and kissed her with all the passion he felt in his heart. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back just as feverishly.

They both knew they had nothing more to fear from the large man, lying on the ground in agony, moaning and clutching his bleeding hand. What they didn't know was that he wasn't the one to fear; Jasper was. He watched the scene unfold from his binoculars a safe distance away and smiled at his men.

"Did you hear what that little filly said? She said he father was the richest cattle rancher in the county."

"You'd be a fool to try and kidnap her again!" the man with the broken nose cried out.

"Maybe, but it would be a good distraction for stealing all her father's cattle, wouldn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, no one would be watching the herd if they were all looking for her; besides, no one ever accused me of being smart."

"Maybe not, but they should. You may like playing the part of the fool, but your plans never fail. Besides, that bitch owes me for breaking my nose."

"Don't worry, we'll get all the money we need from stealing her father's heard and then you can have the bitch for yourself."

***

Chapter Six

Suzanna collapsed into bed, utterly exhausted. It had been a long day, and an even longer night. Filing the report at the police station had taken hours and explaining things to her father had taken even longer.

"I still don't understand what you were doing outside the house to begin with?" Jeremiah Wheeler had barked at her, then he turned on Colton and said, "And you were supposed to be keeping an eye on her!"

"Yes, Sir. I'm sorry I disappointed you. It won't happen again," Colton had said, respectfully holding his hat in his hand

"Damn right it won't!" Jeremiah had shouted at him. "You stand post by my little girl every second of the day from now on. I don't care what it takes; you are not to leave her side ever! Camp outside her bedroom door! Hell, set up a cot by her bed and sleep in her room! I don't want anything like that to happen to her ever again!"

When father had finally calmed down and gone to bed, Suzanna treated herself to a long, hot shower and then climbed into bed naked, too tired to even bother putting on a nightgown.

She was pleasantly surprised to find a man lying between the sheets. "Colton! What are you doing in here? Daddy will kill you!"

"On the contrary, he told me never to leave your side," Colton said and kissed her lovingly on the lips.

Smiling happily, Suzanna returned the kiss and said, "Well, in that case, I guess you'd better stay here."

She ran her fingers through Colton's thick hair and guided his face toward her breasts. Eagerly, he took them into his hands, massaging and fondling them before putting his lips to her tender pink nipples.

A sigh of pleasure escaped her lips as he suckled and licked them, and then gently nibbled them with his lips. She whispered, "Make love to me."

She reached down with her hands and found Colton's manhood. He hardened immediately under her touch, as she massaged and stroked him there. He kissed her passionately, letting their tongues intertwine as the caressed each other intimately.

"Easy, I don't want to climax too soon." Colton said, as he felt himself becoming increasingly stimulated by her touch. With a naughty smile, Suzanna massaged him even more aggressively, hoping to make him spill his seed. Colton recognized that she wanted to play and gripped her firmly by the wrist, pulling her hands over her head.

"Naughty girl! Do I need to restrain you in order to make you behave?"

"Yes, Sir. I think you do." Suzanna smiled, confirming his suspicion that she wanted to play. Colton glanced around her bedroom but there were no restraints that he could see. Then, inspiration struck and he looped her long golden braid around her wrists.

"Grip this braid and do not let it go," he commanded sharply in the spirit of their game.

"Yes, Sir," Suzanna said, clearly delighted to obey.

Colton then brought his lips to her body, kissing and caressing every inch of her. His lips kissed the nape of her neck, down the delicate hollow of her throat and up the curves of her ample breasts. He worked his way down her flat stomach, to the inner curves of her toned, muscular thighs. Finally, he found the triangle of her sex and made love to her there with his mouth.

All the while, Suzanna longed to run her fingers through his hair, to scratch his back with her nails, or to stroke his throbbing his manhood. She forced herself to keep her hands behind her head, loosely looped into her braid, in the spirit of the game they were playing. She found that by denying herself use of her hands, her sense of touch was heightened. Every tingling nerve of her flesh was even more sensitive to the delights Colton was performing on her, and her pleasure was even intense and enjoyable. Colton found that it increased his pleasure too, to have tamed this wild filly, especially since she was completely consenting and gave her love to him with all her heart.

When at last he plunged his deep inside her quivering folds, she was so wet and ready for him that she climaxed instantly. As he thrust deeply inside her with long, powerful strokes, he was able to bring her to orgasm a second time before succumbing to his own climax. Then he lay down beside her, cuddling her in his arms.

When the steady rhythm of her breathing told him she had fallen asleep, Colton tiptoed out of her room to sleep in a cot just outside her bedroom door. He knew her father didn't really mean it when he said Colton should sleep in his daughter's bedroom, but he was serious about wanting her to have twenty-four hour protection.

"I'll keep her safe," Colton muttered, as he drifted off to sleep on the narrow cot, with his favorite revolver tucked under the pillow.

With the house completely dark and all the inhabitants inside finally sleeping, Jasper signaled his men to move toward the ranch house. He saw dollar signs when they passed the herd of prized cattle grazing or sleeping in the field. The man with the broken nose led the way through the bushes, thinking of Suzanna and how he was going to get revenge for what she had done to him.

"This ain't over yet," he said.

Inside the ranch house, Suzanna dreamed pleasant dreams, oblivious to the danger that was creeping closer. In her dreams, Colton was her hero; but could he be in real life? They would all find out soon enough.

Do you like this book? Be sure to check other books in this series

Capturing Suzanna - Volume 2

Freeing Suzanna - Volume 3

Suzanna Bound by Love - Volume 4

Passion on the Ranch: Books 1-4 (4-Book Bundle)

