Return to Pleasure

STORY EXCERPT

“There was a fire in Temperance Calvert’s apartment last night.”

It took every ounce of control Dillon Stokes had learned in his thirty years of life not to physically react to that news. Inside was a different story. His chest tightened, his heart suddenly hammering as if seeking a way out of his body, and his blood went cold as ice.

“And you’re telling me this now because?”

“She was in a wreck a few weeks ago. Single car accident and apparently walked away without a scratch, but word is it could’ve been a hell of a lot worse.” Korbin Blackwell paused as if waiting for a response to that bit of news. When he didn’t get one, he put the icing on the already cooling cake by adding, “A couple of weeks before that, she was almost hit in a drive-by shooting.”

The vise around Dillion’s heart nearly squeezed the damn ticker in two. Christ! How much pain could the organ take in one morning? He figured he should at least help it out by breathing because, shit, he’d apparently stopped doing that as soon as Korbin had started talking.

He drew in a deep breath, let it out slow, and kept his voice bland when he said, “It sounds to me like she’s having a string of bad luck.”

Truthfully, it sounded like more than that. It felt like more than that, too, but damn if he was going to let his tongue say so. Korbin didn’t seem to have the same control over the fleshy, muscular organ in his mouth.

“It sounds to me like someone is trying to hurt her.”

Dillon had to swallow the lump that formed in his throat before he could speak this time. “Is that what the MPD has decided?”

“MPD doesn’t seem to be taking it seriously. They’re treating each as a separate incident and, lumped together, as one big coincidence.”

Dillon finally tore his attention from the coffin being lowered into the ground several yards away. The crowd that had been gathered around the gravesite had already started to disperse. Some had gathered in small groups to talk, while the rest were headed to the line of vehicles parked in the street that wound through the cemetery. So far, he was the only one who hadn’t moved more than his head. He wasn’t sure he could, especially now when his feet felt as if they’d sprouted roots into the ground beneath them.

 He angled a sideways look at Korbin. “And, let me guess. You’re wanting to help her.”

“We’ve been asked to help her.”

Korbin’s intentional use of the word “we” wasn’t lost on him. Neither was the implication. “You talked to her?”

The green-eyed, jealous monster that reared its ugly head in his gut came as a shocker. For starters, why in the hell would he ever be jealous because Korbin had talked to a woman? He and Korbin had been sharing women damn near since they’d figured out their dicks had a more exciting purpose in life than taking a piss. Then there was the fact that the female topic of this conversation was Temperance Calvert. Temperance, who had made it clear on two separate occasions in the last fifteen years that the only way she ever wanted to see either of them again was over her dead body.

Except that a day hadn’t gone by since then he hadn’t thought of her and a night hadn’t passed that he hadn’t dreamed of her. And, as far as the over-her-dead-body part went, if Korbin’s instincts were on the mark, as they almost always were, someone was attempting to make that part happen.

Korbin shook his head. “I talked to Josh.”

Well, hell. The man was in possession of some serious blow-Dillon-out-of-his-boots ammo today. He even caught himself glancing down to make sure they were still on his feet. He would’ve been less surprised if Winnie-the-Pooh had come to life and requested their help to rescue Piglet from a cell of terrorist Tiggers.

Fifteen years ago Josh Calvert had been a confused, angry, and devastated teenager who had retaliated against his cheating mother by setting two very impressive and well-orchestrated fires in Pleasure. He might have gotten away with them if he hadn’t told Temperance what he’d done. No. Correction. He might have gotten away with them if Temperance hadn’t told Dillon and Korbin what Josh had done.

“He called before the service started this morning,” Korbin went on. “To use his words, he’s buried the hatchet and, in an effort to see his sister stays safe, is attempting to convince Temperance to do the same.”

“She won’t do it.”

Not unless she’d changed a lot over the years. The Temperance he’d known had been fourteen, fiery, feisty, and quick tempered, all of which he’d contributed to her firecracker red hair that perfectly suited her personality and her name. At fifteen, getting to know a girl like her had showed him precisely what he wanted in a woman and damn if he hadn’t been looking for a replica ever since. When he’d turned eighteen, he’d tracked her down once before leaving for his first enlistment with the Navy. Those three years hadn’t changed her a bit. She’d told him in very blunt, very hot-tempered words exactly where he could shove the phone in his hand and had abruptly ended the call.

That was the last contact he’d had with her. The last contact outside of his thoughts and dreams, in any case.

He’d seen her, though. A simple Google search of her name and, wham, he got a page of links that took him to her business website, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and every other social media site on the internet. And, of course, there were pictures. There had to be pictures. What better way to increase his torment? And, of course, he saved many of those pictures to his hard drive to stare at and fantasize over again and again because, Christ on a pogo stick, the fourteen-year-old girl had turned into one hell of an amazing woman and, for the love of God, he’d still yet to figure out why in the fuck he couldn’t forget about her.

“Josh is hoping we won’t give her a choice.”

The whole not-giving-her-a-choice part brought to mind many of the fantasies he’d had over the years about the one woman he couldn’t shake. “What the hell does he want us to do, kidnap her and keep her hogtied at the ranch until we catch whoever is after her?”

ADULT EXCERPT

Temperance didn’t say a word as she opened the door to the room and stepped inside. At least not until Korbin and Dillon followed her in and Dillon closed the door behind them. That’s when she turned to face them, one brow arched over a questioning eye, and a mix of weariness and desire in her expression.

“I’m sure I’m safe inside this house, guys. Besides, Thaddeus is well on his way back to Memphis by now with Dirk and Jade eating up his dust.”

“Probably.” Dillon tossed the shopping bags that were just now making it upstairs into a nearby chair against the wall as he walked to her. “But you’re still wound tight, darlin’.”

Korbin saw her glance at him, saw the flames ignite in her eyes, and moved closer. He circled her, stepped in behind her, and framed her hips with his hands. “Why don’t you let me and Dillon help you relax, baby girl?”

Her head fell back to rest on his chest and rolled until her gaze found his and held it. “Both of you?”

Hope, desire, and trepidation skated across her angelic face.

“Both of us,” Dillon answered, and Korbin saw the man lift a hand to the base of her throat, drag it down her chest, and trace the neckline of her blouse. He felt Temperance shiver, too, and saw those flames in her eyes start to burn hotter.

“Is that what you want?” He knew it was, but whether or not she would admit it was the question.

“Or do you want one of us to leave?”

Her eyes widened slightly at that question and her gaze whipped to Dillon. “Oh, no. The two of you are not going to pull that one on me. I’m not about to choose between you.”

“Then both of us it is, darlin’.”

They undressed her together. Korbin bared her torso while Dillon took care of the rest and then, oh, yeah, she was naked between them the way Korbin knew both of them had wanted for half their lives. Everything about her had always drawn out Korbin’s basic instinct to have, to pleasure, and to dominate. He knew she had the same effect on Dillon, too.

Resting his chin on her shoulder, he gazed down her front, watching as her perfect breasts rose and fell in breaths that slightly quivered. When he breathed, he was gifted with the scent of her juices. He hadn’t taken the time to feed his hunger for her in the ETDF building the other night. As he exchanged a quick, wordless glance with Dillon over her shoulder, he knew the man would oblige him now.

“Perch on the edge of the bed and spread your legs wide, darlin’.”

Korbin stepped back as she turned between him and Dillon and moved to sit on the edge of the bed as Dillon had instructed. Her gaze shifted nervously from Dillon to him as she parted her knees until they had a perfect view of her pussy. Her pouty lips were spread and glistening with cream. In sync as they always were, Dillon held back as Korbin closed in, moving between her widespread legs and lowering himself to his knees.

She shivered when he flattened his hands on her inner thighs and softly slid his palms over the fluid coating her flesh.

“I love how wet your pussy gets,” he told her, gazing up at her from beneath his lashes. “It tells me you really want this. That you really want us.”

“I do,” she admitted breathlessly. “I’ve always wanted both of you.”

The feeling hearing that sent through Korbin’s system was indescribable. Unable to wait another moment to taste her sweet cream, he returned his attention to her pussy, flexed his hands on her inner thighs, applying just enough pressure to keep them open, and buried his face in her cunt. She smelled like a delicious, forbidden fruit, sweet and hot, the perfect combination to stroke the animalistic deprivation inside him.

“Korbin, please.”

Her quiet whisper awakened the beast inside him. A primitive possession roiled through his mind as he allowed himself that first taste of her hot juices. He angled his chin, thrusting his tongue between her sodden folds at the sensitive flesh just above her anus and swiping it straight to her clit.

“Oh, God.”

He felt her upper body fall back to lie on the bed and grinned as he repeated the move, lapping up the pre-cum like a cat feasting on cream. Then he probed his tongue into her drenched opening and sank into a whirlpool of her arousal.

The walls of her channel contracted around his tongue as he licked, circled, and plunged deeper. Her moans caused his balls to grow heavier and his dick to pulse with the need to be sheathed in the wet confines of her pussy. He would get that pleasure soon, but for now, it was her pleasure he was after, more of those moans, and a few pleading screams that would let him know he had her right there on the edge.

She gave them to him as he found her engorged clit with the pad of his thumb. He worked the bud with a pressured rotation as he jabbed his tongue in and out of her cunt. Struggling to control his own needs, he devoured her pussy until her hand tugged so tightly in his hair that devilish darts of pain shot straight to his cock and her screams of ecstasy split the sexually charged air.

He kept licking her until the convulsing of her muscles slowed around his tongue, and then he eased back to look at her. She was sprawled out on the bed, her eyes closed, and her breasts rising and falling in breaths so quick he knew she was battling to calm herself.

Rising slightly between her legs, he peppered her inner thigh with tender kisses, worked his way to her lower belly, and kept on going until he reached her breasts. He paused there to circle one nipple with the tip of his tongue and felt it pulse as he continued to her neck.

“Get a hold of yourself, baby girl.” He nipped her jaw and then licked her bottom lip. “Dillon and I aren’t done helping you unwind just yet.”

Captured in Pleasure

STORY EXCERPT

“We will get the leader and your boyfriend.” Adam Cooper’s tone made his words more fact than statement.

“Please don’t call him that.”

Howard may have been her boyfriend, but the mere mention of his name now made her skin crawl.

“My apologies, but we will get them.”

“And, until you do? I’m not going to be safe anywhere am I?”

She’d known the instant she’d gone to the FBI with the information she’d gathered in Howard’s house and overheard on the phone when he’d thought she’d been sleeping that he would know it was her who had turned him into the feds. She’d known he would come after her. It was the reason she hadn’t given the FBI one morsel of the information until she’d gotten Adam to agree to put her in a safe place. That was how she’d ended up here, in this hotel room without any contact with the outside world beyond the FBI for more than a week.

“I’m prepared to offer you protection for as long as it is necessary. I have a U.S. Marshal who is ready to take you into the witness protection program. As distasteful as it is for me to say, the fact that you don’t have any family will help.”

She didn’t. Her father had died of cancer over a decade ago, and her mother had been killed in a car accident barely three years later. She had friends, though, and a career she’d worked so hard to build.

“You will be relocated, given a new identity, and set up to make a fresh start with your life if you’re willing.”

Joan’s head spun. He was offering to send her into hiding, but in a way that she could do so and still be a part of the outside world. The thought of leaving everything behind made a lump form in her throat, but she didn’t doubt, if she stayed, she wouldn’t be alive much longer once the FBI stopped protecting her.

Her vision blurred as images of her coworkers at the accounting firm flashed through her mind, as she heard Angela’s laughter in her head, and as she mentally cataloged everything else she would miss, potentially for the rest of her life.

“Did the U.S. Marshal tell you what my new name will be?”

Adam pulled his cell phone from the front pocket of his slacks, slid his thumb over the screen, and met her gaze. “Erika Channing.”

“That’s not so bad.” She actually liked it better than Joan. “And where will I be taken?”

“You will be relocated to a ranch on the outskirts of a small town called Pleasure, Tennessee.”

Joan blinked at him. “A ranch?”

Adam’s lips twitched. “They call it Rescue Ranch. It has a long history, but the important part is there are men living on that ranch who are operatives with the ETDF, an elite terrorist defense group that works independently of government protocol to fight terrorism in ways sanctioned agencies such as the FBI can’t. You will be fully protected at all times on that ranch.”

In other words, she would be under twenty-four-hour guard. She didn’t know how to feel about that but supposed it didn’t matter. She didn’t have a choice.

“Marshal Gatewood will give you the specific details when he arrives.” Adam checked his wristwatch. “I’m expecting him any minute. He’ll have a file for you to study, things for you to remember about your new identity that will answer any questions you might get about your past. Joan will no longer exist. You’ll need to memorize everything about Erika Channing to the point that you truly become her. You’ll be provided with room and board at the ranch, a car for you to get around, a new wardrobe to help you blend in.”

Joan glanced down at the pale blue cashmere blouse she was wearing tucked into a pair of black slacks. “Let me guess, plaid button-down shirts, worn blue jeans, and cowgirl boots.”

Adam nodded. “Mostly likely, yes. You’ll need to change your hair color, too.”

Joan sighed at that. It would be an easy fix, but one she really didn’t want to do. She was a natural brunette, but she’d been dying it blonde since she was fifteen. She and Angela had gone through many debates about her hair, Angela always insisting she should let the color go natural, while she always insisted she looked far better as a blonde.

“I don’t have any family to worry about, but what about my coworkers, my friends? How do you know Howard or any of the other members of the cell you didn’t get won’t go after one of them to get to me?”

“We don’t, but I believe it’s a slim chance, especially since you haven’t been seen with any of them for more than a week already. That’s why you can’t contact anyone. I’ve sent agents into Howard’s home for some of your things—clothes, shoes, makeup, et cetera—to make it look like you packed in a rush.”

“To make it look like I’m on the run.”

“It would’ve been better if we could’ve staged your death, but this will have to work. They will come looking for you, but they won’t find you. You will be safe on Rescue Ranch.”

Joan startled when a knock sounded at the door. Her heart skipped a beat as Adam opened the door and invited a tall man dressed in a dark suit and tie into the room. U.S. Marshal Clive Gatewood, presumably. This was it. It was time to say goodbye to Joan Hutton and hello to Erika Channing, possibly for the rest of her life.

ADULT EXCERPT

Neither could Lyle, and he stopped bothering to try. He closed the distance between them in a few long strides and pulled her into his arms. “I’m glad you didn’t resist. I’m glad you enjoyed your time with Zoey today. This smile on your lips right now” —he dipped his head to give that smile a light kiss, careful to make sure the brims of their hats didn’t bump— “is worth its weight in gold.”

“Mmm…” Her arms wound around his neck, and she started to sway in his arms to the beat of a much slower song that began playing on the radio. “So was that kiss.”

“Sweet thing, there’s plenty more of those where that one came from.” To prove it to her, he covered her mouth with his. When her lips parted on a contented sigh, he took the opportunity to take the kiss deeper, sweeping his tongue into her mouth and finding hers.

He kissed her as they danced and knew there was no way in hell he would ever be able to let this woman walk out of his life. He kissed her and knew he was Stetson over boots in love with her. He started falling on day one, and it was proving to be a long, hard fall that sealed his fate for the rest of his life.

Needing to touch her, to taste more of her, he skimmed his hands up her sides and licked his way out of her mouth. Her head fell back on a breathy moan, her hat falling off to hit the floor behind her, as he feasted on her throat. Knowing there was more satiny flesh for him to sample beneath her clothing, he pulled off her shirt and bra, licking his way over the inches he’d exposed as he went to work on the fastening of her jeans.

“You should know,” she said breathlessly, her fingers lacing in his hair to twist the strands, “that smile you’re enjoying so much is getting wider.”

He grinned against her flesh as he freed the button and zipper of her jeans and tugged them, along with her panties, down her shapely hips. “Let’s see if we can make it stay there forever.”

Wanting her at a better height for what he had in mind, he glanced around as he lifted her off her feet, and spotted just the place to put her. He set her bare ass on the top of the dresser against the sidewall of the room and dropped to his knees in front of her to pull off her boots and the garments hanging around them. He glanced up at her as he slid his hands between her thighs and gently pushed until her legs parted wide.

His gut rumbled at the sight of her pouty lips parted and glistening with cream. His hunger for her threatened to blaze out of control. He couldn’t wait another second to taste her sweet, hot juices, and didn’t torture himself by attempting to try.

“Taste me, Lyle. Please, put your mouth on my pussy.”

He’d thought to take it slow, to savor the moment, but those soft words coupled with the hand she delved in the back of his hair, sent that thought flying out the window behind her.

A primitive possession roiled through his mind as he allowed himself that first taste of her hot juices. He angled his chin, thrusting his tongue between her sodden folds at the sensitive flesh just above her anus and swiping it straight to her clit.

“Oh, God.”

He heard her head hit the wall behind her, felt her fingers fist in the back of his hair, and smiled as he repeated the move, lapping up the precum like a cat feasting on milk. Not wasting another second, he probed his tongue into her drenched opening and sank into a whirlpool of her arousal.

The walls of her channel contracted around his tongue as he licked, circled, and plunged deeper. Her moans caused his balls to grow heavier and his cock to pulse with the need to be sheathed in the wet confines of her pussy. He would get that pleasure again soon, but for now, it was her pleasure he was after, more of those moans, and a few pleading screams that would let him know he had her right there on the edge.

She gave them to him as he found her engorged clit with the pad of his thumb. He worked the bud with a pressured rotation as he jabbed his tongue in and out of her cunt. Struggling to control his needs, he devoured her pussy until her hand tugged so tightly in his hair that devilish darts of pain shot straight to his cock and her screams of ecstasy split the sexually charged air.

Lyle kept licking her until the convulsing of her muscles slowed around his tongue and then he eased back to look up at her. Her head hadn’t moved from where it had fallen back against the wall, her eyes closed. Her breasts rose and fell in breaths so quick he knew she was battling to calm herself, and her entire body quivered around him.

He peppered that body with tender kisses as he got to his feet, starting at her lower belly and working his way up to her breasts. He paused there to circle one nipple with the tip of his tongue and felt it pulse for more as he continued to her neck.

“Don’t worry, sweet thing.” He nipped her jaw and then licked her bottom lip. “There’s a whole hell of a lot more pleasure to find before we’ll let you rest tonight.”