Shadow Walker

by J. R. Roberts

  Andy’s bottle had been chipped in the fall, but was still mostly intact. What made it even more appealing was the fact that the bottom had been broken enough to form a circle of jagged, shattered glass. When he grabbed the neck of the bottle, the scarred man grinned as if he’d already won the fight.

  Before he could lift the bottle, however, the scarred man felt something slam down onto the top of his hand like a hunk of rock that had been tossed from on high. Clint’s boot caught the man’s fingers and smashed the bottle clenched within them.

  Glass shattered, driving shards into the floor and the scarred man’s hand.

  Ignoring the screams and profanities spewing from the man’s mouth, Clint pushed away the remains of the bottle and lifted him to his feet. “You see what happens when you’re not polite?” he asked.

  While making sure the scarred man wasn’t carrying any other weapons, Clint took a quick look over his shoulder. He was more than a little surprised to find Andy still standing near the door. But Clint wasn’t as surprised to see the gun in Andy’s hand.

  Clint glanced quickly over to the bar and got a nod from the burly man behind it. Sal might not have been anxious to have his customers gunned down, but he was plenty quick to give the word for Clint to do what was necessary.

  The fact of the matter was Clint wasn’t asking for permission to draw. He wanted to see if Sal had him covered—but Clint seemed to be on his own.

  Suddenly, a shot cracked through the air. Andy staggered back and blood sprayed from his right shoulder.

  “Go on and get out of here,” Jill said as she stared along the top of the smoking gun in her hand. “Or I won’t be so nice with my next shot.”

  Clint’s hand was on the grip of his modified Colt, but he didn’t have any reason to draw the pistol.

  Spitting out a few whiskey-soaked curses, Andy pitched his gun toward the bar and stormed out.

  Now that the show was over, the drunks got back to their drinks, the gamblers got back to their games and everything went back to normal in Tad’s Billiards.

  THREE

  By the time Clint was setting the chairs back into place, a twelve-year-old kid was rushing over to him with a broom and dustpan. Clint stepped back and let the kid do his job as Jill walked over.

  “Thanks for helping me out of that,” she said.

  Clint laughed and replied, “I was just about to say the same thing.”

  Jill looked down to the gun that was still in her hand. It was smaller than an average pistol, but wasn’t just some two-shot derringer, either. Now that she’d given the gun a chance to cool a bit after being fired, she put her leg up on one of the chairs and pulled her skirt aside.

  A holster made from cream-colored leather was strapped to her upper thigh. She slipped the gun into its place and waited a few more seconds before slowly easing her skirt back into place. “How about you buy me a drink and we’ll be even?”

  Since the broken glass had been swept away and the table was now ready for its next customer, Clint sat down and said, “Don’t mind if I do.”

  “The usual?”

  “Of course.”

  Smiling sweetly, Jill walked over to the bar to place the order. Before she could get there, Sal stepped out from behind it with a mug full of beer in each hand, and walked over to Clint’s table.

  “You should’ve killed that prick,” Sal said as he set the beers down. “Would’ve done us all a favor.”

  Clint picked up his mug and took a sip. The brew was thick and tasted as if it had been burnt somewhere along the line, but it went down easily. “Maybe next time,” he said. After his second sip, Clint added, “Now I see why you were so ready to give me this job rather than work off the money I owed you.”

  “A good businessman knows a good thing when he sees it. Having the Gunsmith bust out in my place was worth it just for the bragging rights alone.”

  “You tell me that game was fixed and I might become real angry,” Clint said in a steady tone that sent a chill down Sal’s spine.

  The burly man was obviously not one to be intimidated, but he did pale a bit when he saw the warning glare in Clint’s eye. “No, no,” he said quickly. “That’s not what I meant.”

  Clint’s steely facade cracked to reveal the mischievous smile underneath it. “I was just fooling. If I can’t spot a cheater by now, I deserve to be hung out to dry every now and then. Besides, Lady Luck can’t smile on me all the time.”

  “Nick might have cheated. I never did like the looks of him.”

  “All Nick did was bluff me like an expert until he caught a full house. It happens.” As he leaned back to take another sip and work a kink from his neck, Clint saw a woman accompanying Jill back to his table. “Sometimes, I think I should be thanking you for letting me stay on here.”

  Watching Jill and other woman slowly work their way toward him, Clint thought this was most definitely one of those times.

  The other woman with Jill was slender with straight black hair that hung all the way down to her waist. She wore a bright red dress that was wrapped around her like paper around a present. Shiny threads wove here and there, catching the light inside the place and making it shimmer around her.

  Her face was thin and her eyes were shaped in a way that made her look like a treasure from the East. The swagger in her step and the spark in her eyes was anything but demure. In fact, she walked straight up to Clint as if she meant to slap him on the back.

  “Well, well,” she said. “It seems our new employee is earning his pay.”

  “Pay?” Clint asked. “I think Sal is holding out on me.” Seeing the look on the burly man’s face, Clint said, “Still kidding, Sal.”

  “He’s jumpy,” the woman in red said as she patted Sal’s cheek. “He doesn’t like blood spilled on his expensive floors.”

  “I just don’t like trouble in my place,” Sal said. “Maybe I should send you packing, Jasmine.”

  “You can do that if you want to lose all your regular customers.”

  As much as Sal wanted to fire back another insult, even he couldn’t deny the truth in Jasmine’s words. Rather than come up with something else, he grumbled, “Your debt still ain’t paid off, Adams,” and walked away.

  Clint shook his head and took another sip of beer.

  Jill took a seat on Clint’s lap. “The way he grouses, you might think he was the one getting pawed at all day and night.”

  Clint leaned back, surprised to have the lady in his lap, but he wasn’t about to tell her to leave. “Seems like you handled yourself just fine.”

  “The law around here don’t have a problem with men like those three getting what’s coming to them,” she said. “But when the damage comes from whores, things usually don’t fall in our favor.” With that, Jill leaned in and kissed Clint’s cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Before Clint could say anything in return, Jill gave him a kiss on the mouth that he wouldn’t soon forget. Her lips tasted like cherries and her tongue slipped delicately from her mouth to his. A second after the kiss was done, she got up and sauntered over to some other customers who’d been watching her closely.

  Clint was left with his mouth open and his lungs empty. “She’s good,” he said.

  “You know there’s nothing keeping you here if you want to go,” Jasmine told him as she sat in the chair beside him. “You’ve caught three cardsharps in the last two days, stopped a dozen fights before they got started and run off Lord only knows how many hell-raisers. That’s more work than the last half dozen men Sal’s hired to do your job.”

  “You don’t know how much I lost.”

  Jasmine smiled. That, alone, was enough to bring out even more intricacies of her face. Her nose and cheeks looked as if she had some Indian in her bloodline, while her skin tone and mouth seemed vaguely Spanish. Her eyes and coal black hair were traits from the Far East, but her accent was a bit European.

  All of that may have seemed like an odd mix when considered separately,
but the whole package was anything but bad. Every move Jasmine made was exotic and every word she spoke was laced with promise.

  “I heard you were a good gambler,” she said.

  “Were?”

  Shrugging, she explained, “I’d like to see you argue otherwise while you’re working to pay off a loan from Sal.”

  Clint laughed and gave a quick shrug of his own. “It was a hell of a hand. Even good gamblers have their hard times.”

  Jasmine leaned forward and placed her hand upon Clint’s knee as if to support herself. Letting her fingers drift between his legs, she whispered, “Feels like you’re having a hard time right now.”

  “I thought you were in charge of the girls in here but weren’t supposed to get too close with the customers.”

  “I do whatever I feel like,” she said in a whisper that cut through Clint like a warm knife. “And you’re not a customer.”

  Clint finished his beer, set the mug down and then got up. “I guess it’s not my place to argue.”

  Jasmine got up, too, and led Clint by the hand toward the stairs leading to the upper rooms. Nearly every man in the place was watching the shift of Jasmine’s hips as she walked by and the little grin on her face meant she knew it.

  FOUR

  Jasmine’s room wasn’t set up for entertaining. In fact, no matter how many promises she gave with her eyes or how much torture she inflicted with the movement of her body, the only entertaining she did was in making sure the customers got the girl they wanted and the services they’d paid for.

  Her suite was part bedroom and part office, with a four-poster bed in one corner and a rolltop desk in the other. Jasmine led Clint into the room, shut the door and placed her palms flat against his chest, backing him toward the bed.

  “Is this for stepping in on Jill’s behalf?” Clint asked as he slid his hands up and down along Jasmine’s sides.

  She thought about it for a second and then shook her head. “No. It’s because I’ve always wanted to.”

  Clint wrapped his arm around her a little tighter and finally found the clasps which held her dress shut. It took a bit of doing, but he managed to get them loosened without much difficulty. Once the dress came open, Clint slipped his hand underneath it and found Jasmine’s skin to be even smoother than the silk she wore.

  She leaned her head back and wriggled slightly in Clint’s embrace. That subtle bit of motion was enough to loosen her dress even more until it slid down along her body to reveal pert breasts and small, dark nipples. After a few shakes of her head, her hair flowed over both shoulders. The longest ends dangled down just low enough to brush against the uppermost curve of her backside.

  Clint ran his hands along the gentle curve of Jasmine’s spine, then placed them on her hips and moved them up the length of her body again. He took his time and savored every inch of her figure until his touch made it to the soft firmness of her breasts.

  Letting out a slow moan, Jasmine lifted her arms and crossed her wrists above her head as if she were simply stretching her back. The arch of her body caused her breasts to stand out even more, prominently displaying her erect nipples.

  “Do you like what you see?” she asked.

  “Most definitely.”

  Keeping her eyes closed and her head tossed back a bit, Jasmine smirked and shifted a bit closer to him. She moved her arms up and over Clint’s head as if to make it clear that she wasn’t about to let him go. Arching her back even more, Jasmine practically commanded Clint’s hands to cup her tight little backside.

  One of Clint’s hands stayed in place, while the other slid down just far enough to move her dress down over her hips. From there, the garment dropped to the floor in a bundle at her feet. The only thing Jasmine wore beneath that dress was a pair of lacy panties that matched her dress perfectly.

  Smiling seductively, Jasmine unbuckled Clint’s pants and eased them off of him. As she lowered herself to her knees, Clint unbuttoned his own shirt and tossed it onto the pile of his clothes.

  Jasmine’s lips wrapped around Clint’s penis and slid all the way down to the base of his shaft. As her head bobbed back and forth, she reached up with both hands to scrape her nails against Clint’s chest. She was doing such a good job on him that she even felt Clint’s legs buckle slightly.

  He pulled in a few breaths and steadied himself, rather than make her stop long enough for him to sit down. Jasmine’s lips were pressed tightly around him and her tongue was massaging every inch that slid into her mouth. All Clint needed to do was ease his hands around her head so he could get her to speed up or slow down whenever he wanted.

  Slowly, Jasmine eased back and started using her hands on him. At that moment, someone knocked on the door. Without missing a beat, she looked over her shoulder and said, “Come in.”

  Clint wasn’t about to dive for cover, but he was also shocked as hell that Jasmine would take a visitor in the middle of what she was doing. His shock turned to a rush of excitement when he saw who walked into the room.

  “I see you started without me,” Jill said as she hurried inside and shut the door behind her.

  “I couldn’t wait,” Jasmine replied. “Do you mind if she joins us, Clint?”

  Before he could answer, Clint saw Jill unbutton her dress and take it off. Beneath it, she wore a white corset, silk panties and the small holster strapped around her leg. Jill never took her eyes off of him as she unbuckled the holster and then slipped out of her panties and corset.

  “The more the merrier,” Clint said as Jasmine stood up and pressed herself against him. “There’s not anyone else coming, is there?”

  Jasmine grinned and asked, “Don’t you think we’ll be enough for you?”

  Reaching out to take Jill by the hand and pull her closer, Clint said, “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

  Jill positioned herself so she was rubbing against Clint’s left side while Jasmine rubbed against his right. Both of them traced lines along the front of his body until they were each taking turns stroking his cock and massaging his inner thigh.

  Clint traded off kissing each of them as his hands wandered along both of their backs and shoulders. When he felt the back of his legs bump against Jasmine’s bed, he cupped their backsides and pulled them along with him as he fell back onto the mattress.

  Both women landed in a squirming heap on top of him and quickly adjusted to their own positions. Jill laid across the bottom of the bed so she could take up the job that Jasmine had started earlier. Her black hair swayed as her mouth slid up and down along his rigid cock. Soon, she was even touching herself and moaning as she sucked him.

  Jasmine had something else in mind as she stood up on the bed, straddled Clint’s head and lowered herself onto his face. Just as her pussy was close enough for him to kiss, she reached down and grabbed his hair so she could let him know exactly what she wanted.

  But Clint didn’t need any instruction. He gladly began to lick her pussy until Jasmine was letting out a series of loud moans. He knew he was hitting the right spot with his tongue when he saw her bracing herself against the wall and clenching her eyes shut in anticipation of her climax.

  The more Jill worked her mouth on him, the more Clint returned the favor with Jasmine. Soon, he was feeling something else. Instead of her wet, soft lips and tongue, he felt his penis sliding into something warm and slick.

  Jill was riding him now, positioned so that she was facing the bottom of the bed and her back was bumping against Jasmine’s back. In no time at all, both women had found their rhythm and moved together on top of Clint. Every time Jasmine lowered herself onto Clint’s mouth, Jill took his cock all the way inside of her.

  Clint grabbed hold of Jasmine’s hips and held her in place so he could drive her all the way into a powerful orgasm. When Jasmine stopped moving, Jill leaned forward and grabbed Clint’s ankles so she could ride him without disturbing the other woman.

  Once Jasmine caught her breath, she rolled onto the bed beside Cli
nt so she could watch what was still going on.

  Jill looked over her shoulder and saw how things had changed. She then turned around so she was facing Clint. Her body had more curves than Jasmine’s, but that only made her a different flavor of some very fine candy. Jill straddled Clint and sat up straight so her breasts could bounce with the combined motion of their bodies.

  Clint took her by the hips and began pumping into her harder and harder until she was breathing heavier and heavier. Soon, Jill had to lean forward and wrap her arms around Clint as if she were hanging onto a bucking bronco. All the while, he kept thrusting up into her, burying his cock deeply into her wet pussy.

  Feeling her strength wane, Clint rolled Jill onto her back. She spread her legs wide so he could settle in between them. When his erection touched the moist lips of her pussy, she reached down to guide him in.

  Clint massaged her legs as he slowly moved in and out of her. His hands moved along her soft stomach before settling over her large, round breasts. With just a bit of coaxing from his fingers, he got her nipples good and hard. After that, Jill smiled and squirmed every time he touched the dark, sensitive flesh.

  Lowering himself so he was fully on top of her, Clint kissed her deeply on the mouth as his hands wandered along her back. Jill wrapped her legs around him and groaned softly as Clint’s hands found her plump buttocks and held onto them tightly.

  Now, their passion took on an urgency as they both got closer to their own climaxes. Jill seemed to be moving in that direction a little quicker, since her cries were getting louder by the second. Soon, her fingers were digging into Clint’s back and her entire body was straining against him. When her orgasm came, she arched her back and drove her head furiously against the pillow beneath her.

  Clint could feel her lips tightening around his cock in a rhythm that almost perfectly matched her labored breaths. That sensation was more than enough to drive him over the edge, which Jasmine seemed to instinctually know.