Skin

by Karin Tabke

  “Go to sleep,” he said. “We’ll talk about it later.”

  She closed her eyes and shook her head but allowed him to pull her into the crook of his arm. She settled against his shoulder, and the last thought as sleep consumed her was how good their sex smelled.

  Frankie woke later to the feel of Reese’s long, hard body beneath hers. Slowly she opened her eyes and realized by his deep, even breaths he was asleep. She traced a finger across the scars on his chest and wondered for the hundredth time how he really got them.

  She stretched and yawned, and as her thigh brushed against his cock it swelled. She smiled and an idea took hold. Very carefully she slid up toward the lead shank still attached to the ring in the stall wall. For a moment she wondered how she could manage to immobilize Reese without waking him. The thought of him writhing crazily beneath her, completely under her power, sent her skin warming and her pussy constricting.

  Carefully she wrapped the braided cotton around his wrists, then tied it off in a loose square knot. The minute Reese pulled, it would tighten. She smiled. She learned one thing from her family. There was nothing sweeter than a vendetta well served.

  She debated on finding another lead shank and tying up his feet. Instead, she hurried from the stall to the small office and used the bathroom, where she cleaned herself up a little. She smiled as she hurried back through the cold air and into the stall. She noticed there was a camera bag in the corner by the tripod case. She opened it to find another picture card. She changed it out and reset the timer. When she looked across the small space to Reese she met his dark penetrating gaze.

  “Untie me,” he said, his voice low, deep, and dangerous.

  She grabbed a loose blanket and wrapped it around herself.

  “No.”

  “Francesca, do it now or pay the price.”

  She sauntered up to him and smiled. “By the time you get yourself out of this mess I’ll be long gone.”

  He scowled and pulled against the rope. Frankie secured the lightweight blanket around her and tied two ends over one shoulder toga style. Then she took the camera from the tripod. “Now, let’s see what shots I can get.”

  He pulled against the rope again, his biceps bulging.

  “Oh, that looks so good, Reese. Maybe I’ll have a taste of you before I go.”

  “Don’t touch me.”

  She laughed out loud. “Don’t say the prospect doesn’t interest you.” She moved in for a close-up.

  He answered with angry eyes. She pulled the blanket further down his chest. “Looks like you just might be a tad bit intrigued, cowboy.”

  Her eyes swept down the length of his belly to the rising blanket. “I have to go to the bathroom,” he said.

  “Oh, I think” — she pulled the blanket down a little further, exposing his patch of hair — “it might be a little bit more than that.”

  Reese growled a warning, one she ignored. She continued to get her shots. When she pulled the blanket from him she did it slowly, dragging it across his raging hard-on. He sucked in a deep breath and she laughed low. “Does that feel good?”

  He shot her a vicious glare, and for a moment she hesitated. The raw emotion on his face was priceless. She’d apologize later, but she reminded him of his contract. “You agreed to anytime, anywhere.”

  She turned and put the camera back onto the tripod, then set the timer.

  She walked to the foot of the bales and pulled the blanket the rest of the way from Reese’s body. “You have the most incredible body of any man I’ve ever seen.” She moved to his side and touched a finger to his chest, tracing the longest of the scars there. “How’d you get that?”

  “From the last woman I killed after she tied me up.”

  She pressed her lips to it. “I hope you aren’t so violent with me.”

  “Untie me and I won’t be.”

  She traced a finger down his belly to his groin. “I’m sorry, can’t do that, Reese, I need the shot.” She slid her open hand palm first down the thick heat of his erection, and he reared against her hand. “Yes, you see? You do like it.”

  She wrapped her hand around him and he groaned. “This will be the last time you take a picture of me. I quit.” He hissed as she manipulated him to staggering proportions.

  She squeezed his cock in her hand. “After these, I’ll have enough pictures of you.”

  She pressed her lips to his chest and felt the sharp lurch of his heart against her mouth. “You know you want me.”

  “I want you to untie me.”

  “I can’t do that. You need to know what it’s like to be powerless, to have no say.”

  “Why?”

  Her lips traveled lower, and she nibbled on his hip bone. Deftly she slid out of her makeshift toga. “Payback.”

  “A sexual vendetta?”

  She licked the wide tip of his cock and Reese’s hips left the blankets. Then she took him in her mouth, knowing there was no way she could get all of him in, but she gave it her best shot.

  Reese’s body stiffened and he cursed her. She ignored him. Just as she worked him up to overflow, she stopped. Her pussy throbbed so thickly, she felt like she was going to come right there.

  She took his cock between her full breasts and fucked him that way. He watched, his eyes narrow slits, his jaw set. His hips moved boldly against her full flesh.

  “Jesus, Frankie,” he hoarsely whispered as his thrusts increased in tempo and power. Without warning she pulled away from him. Crawling up him, she scratched his chest with her nails and pushed him closer to the edge.

  “Sit on my face,” he demanded. She crawled further up his chest. The cool air wafted across her steamy pussy and she couldn’t wait to feel his mouth torment her. She grabbed the round handle the lead shank was attached to and held on as she straddled his face and lowered herself to him. His hot lips clamped onto her nether lips and she cried out.

  She thought about loosening the tie so he could slip a finger deep into her, but she refrained. She needed him tied up when she left. Her emotions were messing with her mind and she knew there was no future with this man unless she cleared the air with her family first.

  His tongue drilled into her, then laved her tightened clit; his teeth nibbled and his lips suckled her deep into his mouth. An orgasm erupted and she bucked against his face, her juices releasing into his mouth. He continued to ravage her and the orgasm continued to rip through her one electrifying wave at a time.

  Back arched, her tits thrust into the chilled air, her nipples tight, Frankie wanted all of him.

  She pulled back from his mouth, her body twitching and quivering as the vestiges of her orgasms waned.

  She looked at him, his lips glistening with her all over him.

  “Untie me.”

  She shook her head and slid down him, indulgently filling herself with him. The contact was magic. His cock was a lightning rod to her pussy, the contact explosive. He thrust high up into her and she cried out. He pulled hard at the rope, his jaw set. His legs twined with hers and he set the pace. He showed her no mercy.

  “Reese,” she gasped, “please.”

  He pulled harder at the rope, and the wood splintered. His furious thrusts nearly split her in two; she tried to gauge him but his furious pace was unrelenting. His legs clamped around hers and she was his prisoner. The hard look in his eyes scared her. She was no longer in control. “Please, Reese.” Tears heated her eyes. She didn’t want his anger, she wanted his tenderness.

  The wood broke all the way and Reese was free of the restraint of the wall, although his hands were still tied. In a quick movement he rolled her over onto her back, still inside of her. She screamed. His blue eyes flashed like polished sapphires. He pulled the knot loose with his teeth and in an instant he was no longer restrained. Panic rose inside her chest and she felt his cock flex inside of her. The thrill of his control of her and the fear she felt at that moment nearly triggered another orgasm.

  His hand slid to her throat and
he wrapped his fingers around it. “What now, Frankie?”

  She had no words. She closed her eyes, the emotions so raw inside her it hurt. She felt a warm tear slide from the corner of her eye and cursed herself.

  His hands loosened around her throat. What he did next surprised her. He kissed away the tear. Gently he took her face into his hands and kissed her lips. Slowly he opened her mouth with his tongue, gently probing. Her chest constricted. Never had anyone been so gentle with her, and after what she did? Another tear slipped from her closed eyes, followed by another.

  “Shh, Frankie, shh, it’s all right.” He consoled her, her arms slid around his neck, and she kissed him back deeply. Her hips quaked and his pressed against hers, neither asking nor taking.

  Powerful emotion swelled in her chest, infusing her cells. She wanted him now more than at any other time. She wanted his love. “Make love to me, Reese.”

  He kissed her again and smoothed back her hair. His hips moved slowly at first, but as she met him thrust for thrust the momentum increased. His lips trailed from her lips to her eyes where he kissed away her tears, then down her throat. She wrapped her arms tighter around his neck, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder, never wanting him to let her go. He called out her name as he came. She followed a second later, their bodies undulating in perfect motion, their rhythm one.

  For several long moments they lay silent, catching their breath, their fingers, arms, and legs entwined.

  “What just happened?” Frankie softly asked.

  He smoothed her hair back and looked at her tenderly. “I think that was called making love.”

  She smiled and snuggled closer to him. “Reese — I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For calling you a trained monkey. For everything. I haven’t been exactly honest with you.”

  She felt his body tighten. “About what?”

  “Um, well, it isn’t my usual practice to have sex with my models, as you know.”

  “Go on.”

  “And, well, I used our attraction to get shots out of you.”

  “Just business, huh?”

  She smiled again. “Yes, but, well, if it hadn’t been you, I wouldn’t have. I couldn’t.” The words “I care about you” choked in her throat. She didn’t want to scare him out of bed.

  “Fuhgeddaboudit.”

  “Have you?”

  “What?”

  “Been honest with me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then would you trust me enough to tell me about your sister?”

  He let out a long breath. “She died fifteen years ago.”

  “How?”

  “She took off on her horse after I gave her some bad news. She fell and broke her neck.” Pain twisted his face and his eyes wavered from hers.

  “Oh, my God, Reese, how horrible.” She sat up. “Surely you don’t blame yourself?”

  He nodded. “I gave her the news.”

  “But it was her choice to run off.”

  “No, Frankie, I lashed out at her in my anger. She was fucking twelve years old! I should have protected her. Instead it was my hand that pushed her.”

  “And your father blames you?”

  “Rightfully so.”

  “I don’t believe it! You were fifteen, how were you to know what would happen?”

  “I knew she wasn’t stable. I wanted her to stop asking questions.”

  “What news did you give her?”

  “I told her the truth. Our mother didn’t love us enough to hang around.”

  “She deserted you?”

  “Yeah, ranch life wasn’t for her. She up and left one night while my father was in Cheyenne. The old man blamed me, said I was too much work and he regretted ever adopting me.”

  Frankie gasped. He laughed. “Don’t feel sorry for me, Frankie, I’m not worth it. My biological father didn’t stay around long enough for morning sex. It was me and Mom for years. Until she met Sam. He was a good man, but he was also a man of the land. Mom always took to the cities. They met in Dallas. She was working a quarter horse convention, and he was buying a stud to start his line. He promised her a place to live and his love, she promised him she’d try. After Missy was born she changed. Missy was a colicky baby, and my mother was different. I think now she might have had a touch of depression that never left. Me and Sam took over raising Missy and Mom just kind of blended in with the woodwork. She was just never the same. She up and left one day, said she couldn’t do this life anymore.”

  Frankie smoothed back his hair, her heart breaking for the family. “Missy kept crying, blaming herself. I finally had it one day and told her to grow up, it wasn’t her, it was our mother. Mother was selfish, and it was time to move on. Missy jumped on her pony and took off. Sam yelled at me to go get her. When I got to her it was too late.”

  “Oh, Reese, I’m so sorry. But it isn’t your fault. Girls do stupid things all of the time. How were you to know she would react like that?”

  “I don’t know. I always had a temper, my parents always told me it would get me in trouble, and it did.”

  “No, no, it isn’t that way. You can’t control everything, or everyone, only yourself.”

  “It’s history.”

  “But you love it here.”

  “I stopped loving this place the day my father hit me and told me never to come back. That I was as dead to him as Missy was.”

  She gasped. “My father said the same thing to me.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What happened?”

  She swallowed hard. “I don’t know.” Her eyes filled with tears. “He hurt me, Reese, and God forgive me, but I struck back by defying him.”

  “I can help you, Frankie.”

  “No, you can’t. No one can.”

  He gathered her into his arms. “Trust me.”

  She turned watery eyes up to him. “I have to do this myself.”

  She fell asleep in Reese’s arms, and long after the camera stopped, Reese stared at the ceiling of the stall. The lights dimmed in the lanterns, the batteries losing juice.

  Had Frankie admitted she killed her father or was she innocent? If she was guilty, then there was no reason fighting her idea to go confront her brother. Maybe that was a setup to take him out too. Jase’s words echoed in his head. “Mark my words, buddy. Goombahs will show up, coz she’ll get the word out.”

  It had been two days and no sign of soldiers. Could Frankie be innocent? Stealthily, Reese slipped from the warmth of Frankie’s body and the blankets. He quickly dressed, then headed for the office, closed the door, and made a call.

  “Wiseguy,” a voice answered.

  Reese smiled. Jase’s version of a goombah was good.

  “Did you get a statement from the secretary?”

  “Nah, her lawyer is holding out, but we’re working on it.”

  Reese felt a momentary sense of relief. “I think we’ve got this wrong.”

  “How so?”

  “No goons in these parts and I just can’t buy into your theory.”

  “Ah, I see, you got some more and you want to keep getting it.”

  “Look, if she killed her old man, I’ll find out. I’ve got her primed, the next time I fuck her she’ll sing.” Reese cringed at his crudity. It was necessary if he was to keep up his front with Jase. The last thing he needed was for Jase to report back to Ty that he was too close to the crack. He’d be yanked off the case so fast everyone’s heads would spin. He needed more time. If she was a killer, he’d arrest her, but if she wasn’t?

  “Get fucking, man, ’cause our eyes and ears tell us war is about to break out.”

  “I’ll pump her for as much as I can get, but I want your word you’ll keep quiet to Jamerson, I don’t want to get pulled.”

  “You got it, man. I’ll give you twenty-four more hours, then we pull her in.”

  “I need more than twenty-four hours.”

  “It’s less now, get humping, man.”

  “Fuck you, Jase,
” he mumbled before slamming the phone down. He opened the door and came face-to-face with Frankie. She slapped him across the face so hard that for several seconds he heard little birdies.

  “You’re nothing but a dirty lying cop!”

  Chapter Thirty

  “Frankie —”

  She punched him in the chest. “I hate you!” Pain speared her hand. Her adrenaline spiked, the hurt ignored.

  She punched him again. “I hate you!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, so loud her throat strained and horses whinnied nervously. She turned to run from him but he caught her arm. She spun around so fast it surprised him. “Don’t you ever touch me again! Do you understand? Never!”

  She yanked her arm from his grasp and ran back to the stall. Emotions collided like a multiple-engine train wreck in her heart. It was always there, right in front of her, she just refused to deal with it.

  Humiliation, anger, frustration, and a profound sense of loss smashed together, one on top of the other, into a heap of what her life had become. Hot tears stung her eyes. She could barely see what she grabbed. She managed to navigate the small space and find her clothes. Hastily she dressed, not wanting to stand naked before him for a second longer. She grabbed the camera. She felt Reese step forward. A low, guttural sound like a wounded beast emanated from deep within her. She dared him with an icy glare to try and take it.

  He stepped back. Clutching the camera to her chest, Frankie hurried past him.

  When she entered the house, the kitchen door slammed shut behind her. She started, but not before she was grabbed from behind.

  “Got you now, cara.”

  Reese took his time leaving the barn. Despite Frankie’s threats to leave, there was nowhere for her to go. He had the keys to the truck and Midas wouldn’t be back until later. If she called for help, by the time anyone arrived he would have her packed and gone.

  His shoulders sagged in resignation.

  Frankie was right. They needed to go back. Running got them nowhere. It was time to take the tiger by the tail.

  He stood in the empty stall, his gaze resting on the rumpled blanket of the makeshift bed. If these walls could talk. A multitude of emotions racked him. Guilt, anger, sadness. A profound sense of loss. And just as powerful, regret. Regret for what might have been. What could have been. What wasn’t.