by Sienna Mynx
Annabelle slowly nodded.
“You know a man like him cain’t love a woman like you,” Ms. Kitty said.
“But I think he does,” Annabelle said.
“Your color ain’t gon’ change, and neither will his. That means you two ain’t neva gon’ be nuthin’. Don’t confuse his words and those feelings between your legs with love. I should know.”
“Red Sun loves you,” Annabelle said in a defiant tone.
“Yes he does. I’m his soiled dove. But I can’t give him no babies. And he can’t change what I am. Never married me. He loves me by default. And it’s okay, I accept it.”
“He loves you, Cora,” Annabelle said, using her real name. Ms. Kitty looked her in the eye. “Not by default,” Annabelle said. “Ain’t nothing wrong with you. He loves your strength and your loyalty. And he may want babies, but he wouldn’t let you go to have them with another. I know this because he told me. Cain’t you trust him?”
Ms. Kitty let her go. Annabelle sat upright and stared at her surrogate mother as she stood. “You gon’ heal. Bring the outlaw to the saloon by sunrise. If’n the sheriff hasn’t already thrown him in a jail cell.”
Annabelle watched in silence as she left. She heaved a heavy sigh over their parting. There was plenty of truth in Ms. Kitty’s story. Annabelle had learned the Chickasaw way, and that meant she could write her own story. She wasn’t ready to give up yet.
**
The sheriff looked up when Cora left the cabin. Nothing the outlaw said mattered at that point. Tyler Shepherd had materialized. Gone was the mystique of the man who made his woman into stone. Now they’d all have to face the bastard. He stepped to her as she started down the porch stairs.
“Is Annabelle okay?” the sheriff asked.
“She’ll live.” Cora looked past him to the night. “Did you send someone to ride out after Red Sun?”
“He was already too far gone,” the sheriff said.
Cora gave him a look of disgust. “Since when does that matter? He could be in trouble!”
He touched her hand. She flinched.
“Are you okay? Shep being here, and all,” he asked.
“I can handle Tyler Shepherd. I’ve had plenty of practice. It’s the town you need to be worried about. Excuse me.”
Without a word to share to comfort her, he watched helpless as she walked off down the dirt road back to her saloon. The sheriff turned his head and narrowed his gaze on Jeremiah. “Did Shepherd or any of his men see you? Do they know we have you?” he asked.
“No one saw me. I’m sure of it.”
The sheriff tipped his hat. “Gonna send my deputy down here to post watch until sun up. I’m doubtful ole Shep will ride again tonight. But you never know.”
“I’ll be ready this time,” Jeremiah assured him.
The sheriff cut his eyes at him. “Right. You be ready. By daybreak bring Annabelle and meet me at Blue Moon. I’ll decide how this ends. Got that, outlaw? I decide, not you.”
“Understood.”
The sheriff started off.
“Wait! What about the Indian?” Jeremiah asked.
The sheriff’s eyes went dark. “Fuck the Indian. Just make sure you and Annabelle at the Blue Moon by sunrise. If not before.”
**
Annabelle looked up. The side of her face felt numb, swollen. She knew she looked a sight. She pulled her hair over with her hand in a futile attempt to cover it. “They gone?” she asked.
“The sheriff wants us at the saloon at sun up,” he said, bolting the door.
“Fine with me. I can’t sleep no how,” she sighed. She watched as he picked up his guns and her Colt. He laid them out on the table. “Where are the bullets? We need to be prepared.”
“I’ll get them,” she said. She closed her robe tightly and started for her room. His hand found hers when she tried to pass him. She kept her head down and eyes averted. She waited.
“Will you look at me?” he asked.
Annabelle sighed. She struggled to find her voice. It broke over her words and she had to stop and restart again to be heard clearly. “I’m sorry,” she managed.
“Why? For what?” he asked.
She looked over to him. “I could’ve gotten everyone killed. Red Sun … he might get killed. And it’s my fault.”
He pulled her hand and drew her closer. This time she had no choice but to lift her gaze and meet the look of concern in his eyes. “Don’t ever apologize to me. Never. Nothing you did or said brought about any of this. It was my choices that got us here.”
He dropped her hand and touched her hair. Gently he moved it from the side of her face and inspected the bruise. “Does it hurt?”
“Only if you make me smile,” she said.
“Then we have a problem,” he replied. He brushed a sweet kiss across her jaw. She turned her face and kissed him, ignoring the sting to the cut on her bottom lip. At first he stiffened. His reaction to her passion was surprise and caution. But she grabbed his face and swept her tongue in his mouth, claiming him by pressing her curves against him. His arms circled her waist, bringing her up against him.
The embrace brought relief and spilled down her spine, releasing her from the tension and fright of the night. Her mouth broke from his only to undo his belt. And he was just as hurried, yanking her robe from her shoulders and off her body. Jeremiah groaned deep in his throat. He grabbed a fist full of her hair and tugged back so he could run his tongue up her neck. This time passion for them was raw and unapologetic.
Having her healed him.
It was that simple. The pain of the night, both physical and emotional, was set aside. The smell of her skin, pussy, the feel of her body, all of it broke down his walls of defense. Weakened him. He cupped both buttocks and lifted her while seeking her mouth for another feverish kiss. She hitched her legs around his waist and he carried her through the moonlit cabin. Their garments were left where they met.
Before long he had her on the bed. And to her surprise he urged her to roll to her tummy, bringing her up on her knees. In the dark he could admire the slender curve of her back as it dipped and gave her round beautiful ass a rise. And with her knees forced apart her wet pussy glistened. Parting the folds he found her clit beneath and teased it. She mewled and sucked in several breaths, but her hips swayed in a natural response. She was ready. He angled his cock at her opening and pushed in.
“Sweet Annabelle,” he wheezed. He found her pussy was still tight. If this was their last night together, then he’d spend it here, buried deep in her. He gripped her ass and worked his hips. He thrust harder and harder. Her legs and buttocks trembled. Swirling his hips he slowed his rhythmic pumping to shallow circles. Yes, he wanted to go hard and fast, but a woman like her was to be savored. And he wouldn’t waste a minute of their passion on his haste to be satiated.
“Yes, Annabelle,” he said softly to her. She glanced back at him from over her shoulder while biting down on her already swollen lip. She moved back at him with each delivered thrust of his hips forcing him to increase speed.
“That feels so good, Jeremiah, more, give me more,” she pleaded. Annabelle enjoyed every inch of him this way. She’d seen animals in the wild join this way and never imagined it could also be for the coupling between a man and woman. There was so much to learn about sex, about him. Her lids fluttered and her head dropped when he squeezed her clitoris as he fucked her from behind. Her pussy cinched around his cock and her thigh muscles burned with mounting tension. He kept a hard grip on her hips and didn’t break his stride. When she dared look back at him there was a feral glint in his eyes. She kept the image of his restraint and weakening to the front of her mind as she too gave into the melting pleasure swirling up her pussy. The first time had been nothing like this.
His breath caught and held. The hold on her hips tightened like a vice and he pounded his dick deep, bringing them both down on the bed. Flat beneath him with her legs forced closed and his hard thighs keeping them that way, he
kept going until his cock jerked and spurted hot juices into her womb.
He dropped his forehead to the back of her head, his hands gripped hers with their fingers intertwining, and their arms stretched to the headboard. Together they rode the final wave of ascension.
**
“What are you doing here?” Cora asked.
The sheriff removed his hat. Cora had cleared the saloon. She sat at the table by herself with her pistol and a bottle of whiskey to keep her company. The girls were all banished to their rooms. She’d sit all night while she waited for Red Sun to return. Prayed for his return.
“Drinking alone? That isn’t you, Cora,” he said with a gentleness in his tone she didn’t care for. She tossed back the final shot in her glass and let it scorch her throat before pouring herself another.
“You need to go,” Cora warned.
“I’m not leaving.”
She glanced up at him. “It’s not your decision to stay.”
“Yes it. I’m the law in this town. I make the call,” he said. “Figured you’d be waiting for the Indian. We wait together.” He picked up a glass from the bar and came to the table she sat at. He turned the chair around and sat on it backward. He poured himself a shot.
“What do you want from me tonight?” she asked.
“Just tonight?” he said with a wry smile.
“You know what I mean. What is it you want?”
He didn’t bother to answer her. He never did. He just lay in wait for her judgment day. For the day when she had nothing left but him. Just like a man. So much like Shep. She closed her eyes and sucked down a breath. “Do you want to know how I escaped Tyler Shepherd?” she asked.
“Tell me,” he said.
She blinked back her tears and allowed her mind to unlock those dark memories. “I got help from the man I loved.”
The sheriff’s smug smile dimmed. “Man?”
She nodded. “His son.” She took another drink. She knew that wasn’t the story he expected to hear. It was the story she swore never to tell, even after she saw the same foolish love in Annabelle’s eyes for the forbidden. Tonight opened all those wounds for her. “What Shepherd loved, more than anything, was breaking a girl.” She looked up at him. “Do you know what that is?”
“I’ve heard the term,” he replied bitterly.
She nodded. “Of course you have. Men, no matter the color, all have the taste to dominate the weak.”
“Cora—”
“Every three months new girls came, young and innocent, like me. And I prayed for it. Wanted him to find someone else to break, to keep him off me.” She wiped at her tears. “Her name was May. Shep hadn’t claimed her yet. He was too busy with his other pets. But I knew May would be the one.” Cora looked up. Her greatest sin was her damnation. And even now she couldn’t bring herself to accept what had been done. “I tricked her into drinking one night. Told her I’d help her get back to her people. Filled her with liquor until she was sick with it. Vomiting. Then I cleaned her up and put her in my bed. Because … I knew Shep would come that night for me.” She reached for the bottle. “It was the plan Daniel and me come up with. After Shep beat me so bad I couldn’t walk for days, he wanted to kill his father. I begged him not to. He wanted to run away with me. We both knew he couldn’t. So the only thing we could do was plan my escape—and use May to do it. She … she never had a chance. Better her than me, right?” Cora poured until she reached the rim of the glass. She drank down every drop before she could continue. Tears dropped from her eyes. “I’ll never forget the look on Daniel’s face when he put me on that ferry with money in my hand. He even gave me fake papers. I knew I would never see him again. And you know what he looked like? He looked like a man relieved to have me go. Men can’t deal with what they can’t have. And Daniel could never have me and the respect of his father or his political dreams. So it was best to free himself of me by sending me away and calling it love. If he had asked I would have willingly entered placage and been his, on his terms, that’s how foolish I was then. So eager for love that I believed Daniel was my only choice. He wasn’t. What man wants to fight for a woman so broken, so hated by society? So desperate for life she’d sacrifice another young girl in her place to cling to it.”
“You were trying to survive,” he said.
“I deserve to be barren, to be here.” She reached for her gun and ran her hand over it. “And I’ll kill him before I let him take me again. I want to be the one to put a bullet in Tyler Shepherd. I want to see him die at my own hands. Get revenge for myself, for May, for my Ma and every woman who never had a choice.”
“We can beat him. He don’t know about the outlaw. Not yet. I’m thinking of using that man to get us out of this. Hand him over and send Tyler Shepherd on his way,” the sheriff suggested.
Cora gave a bitter laugh. “You sound dumb.”
“Watch your tongue, woman!” he snapped. “I’m talking reality here. No way in hell you could ever kill Tyler Shepherd. And if-in you could there would be no way I can keep you from hanging for it.”
“You go to hell!” she hissed. She glared at the sheriff. “Ain’t no bargaining with Tyler Shepherd. He gon’ want revenge for what Annabelle done. You can give him all the gold in the bank and it won’t change nuthin’. It’s you he hate, you and everything this town represent.” Cora pushed up from the table. The sheriff stood and grabbed her arm before she could walk out on him. He turned her to face him.
“I love you, Cora. Have since the very first day you stepped off that train in Tulsa and agreed to move here to this town. I’ll kill Tyler Shepherd for you, if it would open your eyes to what’s here between us, woman. What we share.”
The doors to the saloon swung opened. Red Sun walked in. Cora broke free from the sheriff and ran straight for him. He caught her with one arm. She hugged his neck so tight she was lifted from her feet. She cried tears of relief. “Thank you, God,” she breathed.
He stroked her back but didn’t respond. When she stopped giving thanks she looked up at him and saw that the rage in his eyes was focused on the sheriff. Ben Taylor picked up his hat and walked out of the saloon without a word to Red Sun.
Cora stepped back. “I thought they had gotten you.”
“I know where his camp is,” Red Sun said. “Annabelle? How she?”
“Foolish. Reckless. Fearless. Take your pick.” Cora smiled. She went to the doors of the Blue Moon and drew them shut behind the swinging doors. She bolted them inside. She turned and saw Red Sun removing his irons and his belt.
“We gon’ have a town meeting in the morning,” she said.
“Why he here?” Red Sun asked.
“You know why he come,” she replied.
Red Sun cut her down with a stern look. Cora rubbed her hands together and walked toward him. “I told you I am nice to him to keep this place open and to keep the peace. What he wants don’t matter.”
“The fact he wants anything from you matters to me,” Red Sun corrected her.
She smiled. “You jealous?”
He grunted and waved the question off. She went after him. She stopped him before he headed to the bar. “Come upstairs with me.” She put a shaky hand to his chest. “I need … I can’t be alone right now.”
He took her hand in his. He kissed her palm. Cora broke into tears and he hugged her to him. She clung to him until her body stopped shaking and then together they went to her bed.
**
“Are you sleep?” Annabelle asked.
“I can’t. Not tonight,” he whispered back. He lay in bed with her resting on his chest. His vision blurred at times but sleep never came.
“Me either,” she sighed. “What you think the sheriff and town gon’ do?”
“I’m thinking the only way they come out of this is if they give Tyler Shepherd something he wants more than revenge.”
Her head lifted. “What?”
“Me,” he said and looked into her eyes. “Your sheriff can’t keep this cont
ained. Not with those men dead by my hand and the Indian’s. He has to give me up.”
“That’s not true!” she said. “We protect our own. You’re one of us now. I’ll make them see it.”
“I am not one of you, Annie. I’ll never be!” Jeremiah reminded her.
She stared at him with such refusal and rebellion in her eyes he regretted his words. He loved her loyalty but he was no fool. He saw the plan all over the sheriff’s face. He saw how nonchalant he was about the safety of the Indian. He had to come up with his own plan that guaranteed his life and safe passage.
“I say the best idea for us is the one where I run,” he told her.
She sat upright on him. The damp cushion of her pussy lips pressed down on his lower abdomen. In the dark the silhouette of her body made her even more alluring. She considered his words in silence. Before he could conjure another explanation she leaned in with her hands flat to either shoulder. The smell of sex and lavender filled his nostrils. A strong aphrodisiac, he suffered a painful spasm in his dick. And when her breasts swayed, his eyes were again drawn to them. Jeremiah licked his lips, unable to look away from their thick dark points. “I won’t let you go. I just won’t,” she said. “Do you know why?” she asked.
“Tell me?” he replied.
“Because I never give up on someone … never,” she smiled.
“I have another idea.” He dragged his vision up from her nipples to look into her eyes. “One I was afraid to ask.”
“Ask. Ask me anything. What is it?” she said.
“Come with me. Run with me,” he said.
Stunned, she sat upright again with her eyes stretched around the meaning of his request. “Run? To where?”
“Wyoming! Marriage is legal there.”
“How you know?” she frowned.
“During the war. I met a man. He told me he had a native in Wyoming. A wife. Said he only joined the war to help his brothers and father. But when it was done he was going back. There is so much land that is open for the taking. And I got the gold. We can start there, set up there. Be free together.”