STORY EXCERPT

Without warning, she sunk to her knees, causing the dry Montana earth to billow from the ground in a huge cloud of dust. She then covered her face with her hands. “Oh, Dad, I love you, but how could you have been so dumb? You were a clever guy. You must have realized where this madness was leading.”

“Jack knew sure enough, but his love for your ma blinded him, Carly. She meant everything to him.”

He recognized and understood that very same emotion.

The unconditional love I feel for Simone still fills my heart. It will never diminish or die.

A huge sigh of resignation left her body as she stood. “Okay. Let me get this straight, Brett. I don’t owe the bank anything now, right?”

“Right.”

“And the criminals masquerading as financial lending institutions won’t be knocking at my door at three o’clock in the morning? Please tell me I’ve got that part right?”

“Right again, you’re safe.”

“Well… that’s a relief, but the downside is…?” She held his gaze, fear showing in her soft brown irises as she expectantly waited for his answer.

“The downside is you owe me three hundred and twenty thousand bucks, honey.”

Carly looked incredulous, and she spread her arms wide in disbelief. “Three hundred and twenty thousand bucks, just like that, huh?”

“Yeah, just like that. Nothing personal, you understand, it’s business, pure and simple.”

The feisty side of her personality made a return, and she placed her hands on her hips in confrontational style. “Well, Mr. Hot-shot-stockbroker-turned-rancher, I simply don’t have that kind of money. It costs eight thousand dollars a month just to keep ma alive.” Clearly frustrated by events, she angrily added, “There’s nothing left in the pot. So if you want to see your money again, you’ll just have to sue my sorry ass.”

With that final petulant remark, he knew he had Carly exactly where he wanted her. “Sue your sorry ass, huh? I don’t think that will be necessary.”

“Believe me it will, if you want to see any of your money again. I’m sorry, Brett, but I just don’t have it. No can do.”

“Tell me something, Carly, do I look like a dumb son of a bitch to you? A guy who can’t tie his own shoelaces, or walk and chew gum at the same time?”

She studied him intently for a good fifteen seconds, maybe longer. Their eyes connected by imaginary lasers, neither willing to blink first.

“Not exactly. No.”

“And your pa didn’t think I was such an innocent either, which is why this ranch becomes my property unless you pay back the loan. It’s all legal and above board. I got the signed documents right here if you want to see them.” He patted the breast pocket of his denim shirt to show he wasn’t bluffing.

Her eyes narrowed on him. “You manipulative bastard. You planned this all along, didn’t you? Taking advantage of a vulnerable old man in need of money to keep his sick wife alive.”

Brett removed his hat and wearily wiped the sweat from his brow again. He hadn’t expected gratitude for his trouble, but neither had he envisaged such undiluted hostility.

“Bastard, huh? A bastard for lending your old man money at a very low interest rate when no one else would? I don’t see it that way, Carly. I don’t see it that way at all. Your pa begged me to help him out. He’s dead now, God rest his soul, so as the legal guardian of Bear Creek Ranch, you’re now responsible for the debt. Like I say, it’s nothing personal, simply business.

“First payment is due on the twenty-eighth of this month. The amount being ten thousand bucks.”

Her mouth fell open, but for once she remained silent.

“Make sure you pay on time. I’ll send you copies of all the documentation the lawyers wrote up just to prove I’m not shafting you. Just like I wasn’t shafting your father.”

As a departing gesture, Brett fleetingly touched the brim of his hat before mounting his beautiful jet-black stallion, Phantom. “That gives you just over three weeks to find the money for the first payment. Let’s head for home, Phantom.”

He spun the horse around before whistling for Biff to follow. The old dog lazily stretched then trotted obediently alongside. “I’ll be seeing you, honey.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Brett roused himself from his introspection and turned his attention to Carly. Supported by the thick bed of straw, she now lay flat on her back. Her legs were clamped tightly shut, and her whole body looked stiff to the point of rigor mortis. Anyone would think she was still a fucking virgin, the way she laid there, one hand spread protectively across her breasts, the other covering her pussy.

“I’m ready. Is this okay?”

He briefly felt the urge to laugh, but didn’t. “Well, not exactly, but you’ll do for now.”

Sex was the only thing that gave him relief from the frustration and anger he felt much of the time. When he fucked, he briefly inhabited a place where his angst at the world ceased to exist.

He knelt down beside her and roughly pulled her hands from her breasts and pussy, spreading them wide. He did the exact same thing with her legs.

“You don’t get to hide anything from me. For the next thirty days I own you.” He knew his words were harsh, but even after all this time, he still didn’t have enough compassion within him to give a fuck.

Naked, beautiful, and completely spread-eagled, she looked vulnerable, but the speed at which her chest rose and then fell again left him in doubt she was also sexually aroused by his dominant, uncompromising manner.

Eager for sex, his hard-on twitched impatiently in front of him. “Understand this, Carly, I have the right, the absolute right, to do whatever I want with you. No ifs. No buts. No limits.”

“Yes, I–I–I understand.” Her voice quavered as she spoke, and he knew she experienced that intoxicating mix of fear and arousal.

All he had to do now was close his eyes to find sanctuary, beautiful sanctuary. Brett started at her feet, kissing each individual toe in turn. “Your cute little toes are just perfect.” He felt them twitch and wriggle against his lips, as though almost on the point of pulling away, but never quite doing it.

Feeling the happiness that only came with sex, he proceeded to pepper butterfly kisses up her silky smooth shins before briefly pausing at her knees. “These are lovely, too. Perfect, just perfect.”

The higher up her body his lips roamed, the more wanton and aroused her breathing became. Brett then licked, kissed, and generally adored her creamy thighs. “Baby, baby, baby, do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?” Feeling this beautiful woman sexually writhe beneath his touch made him come alive.

Wanting more and enjoying this precious time away from the real world, he feverishly buried his head between her legs. Breathing deeply, he imbibed her womanly scent. “Oh, God, I need you. I need to be inside you, but I need to taste you first.”

With his eyes still tightly shut, he pulled her pussy lips apart and licked the full length of her soaking-wet slit until his tongue circled erotically around her engorged clitoris, causing her to moan softly with pleasure. She even fisted a hand into his hair and pulled—hard, and he knew she was enjoying this as much as he was.

“Oh, yeah, baby. Oh, yeah. I just can’t get enough of you either. You’re so beautiful.”

Desperate to be inside her, Brett moved between her legs, spreading them wider still with his thighs, before sinking his prick deep inside her pussy with an urgency that surprised even him. “Baby, you’re so fucking wet for me.” The warm, tight vise that squeezed his prick felt exquisite, so good in fact that he couldn’t stop himself from pumping enthusiastically inside her.

The heat of the roaring fire painfully scorched his back, only adding to the arousal and feeling of well-being he experienced.

Delirious on pleasure, he slid almost all the way out, before plunging his cock deep inside her tight, feminine wetness again. Brett adored the way she lifted her legs from the straw bed and wrapped them around him, crossing her feet at the ankles.

Now inhabiting an almost utopian paradise, one filled with such overwhelming beauty, he cupped her breasts together before taking each nipple into his mouth, sucking at them, paying equal attention to both. Using his teeth, he pulled each aroused peak taut, making her moan orgasmically beneath him.

“Yeah, you go right ahead, baby. I want you to come. I demand that you do.”