by Zoey Marcel
She broke down and wept. “You should have told me sooner.”
“We should have,” he agreed. “If we had known this would happen even without a permanent collar or a ring, we would have.”
“Kendall, we’re sorry. We’ll make it up to you,” René promised. “You can leave town whenever you want to, as long as it’s not midnight or some ungodly hour. You can buy whatever you want and have friends. Nobody’s taking away your freedom.”
“I can’t even fucking leave town!” She pointed to the unseen wall of chauvinism.
“If you need time to think about this and cool down, we’ll understand.” Quentin’s somber tone betrayed his hopeful words. He knew. She could see that he did.
“I need to leave,” she whispered tearfully.
There was no shock in his expression. His dark, glassy eyes were the only foil to his composure. “I understand.”
“Quentin.” René gaped at him.
“If we keep her here against her will, we would be guilty of the things she’s accusing us of.” Quentin strode toward her. “You’re not our prisoner, Kendall. You never were, but our hearts will always be yours.”
She sobbed and he held her, rubbing her back and breathing in her hair. Her heart broke when he stepped back.
René blinked rapidly and looked up at the sky. “Take some time if you need to and think things over, then come back to us.”
“I love you both, and Shane, and Charlie, but I can’t stay in voodoo 1950s land.”
“Shh.” He pressed a finger to her lips to silence her hysteria and then wrapped his arms around her.
“Please come back,” he whispered. “We love you so much.”
“I love you, too.”
René seemed reluctant to let go of her, but he did.
Quentin looked at her seriously. “In order to be able to leave permanently without dying, you will need Shane’s and Charlie’s permission as well. We’ll leave you to find them. Be safe, ginger.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, wiping her eyes. “I really do love you.”
“I know.”
Her heart shattered as she watched them walk away from her. She already missed them so much, but black magic village? How could she stay in a funky town where supernatural shit happened and everyone laughed it off as tradition? What the fuck?
Kendall pulled out her cell phone and searched for Shane’s name in her contacts. She couldn’t face her Dom to tell him this. He was very persuasive. He might talk her into staying and then she would end up barefoot and pregnant with all that expensive schooling behind her and no career to show for it.
Aiden was right. She was talented. Why throw all that away?
The men treated her like gold now, but who was to say they wouldn’t take her for granted later, or get tired of her? What if they abandoned her with their children, or she asked them for a divorce? Would the town curse still apply because she’d once been theirs? Would she die for daring to end their relationship?
She dialed Shane’s number, heart leaping when she heard his voice greet her on the other end.
“I just found out—”
“I know. Quentin told me,” Shane said in a serious tone. “You wanna come home to the ranch and we’ll talk about it?”
Her eyes squeezed shut and she shook her head before remembering that he couldn’t see her through the phone. “No. I have to leave. I’m so sorry. I love you very much, but I can’t do this.”
“How did you find out?”
She couldn’t tell him. She’d told Aiden she wouldn’t. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I asked you a question, Kendall.”
“You’re not my boss!” Her bottom clenched in apprehension even if her mouth didn’t have the sense to quit talking.
“Are you saying you don’t want to be my submissive?”
“Not if you’re trying to trick me into a power exchange.”
“Is that really what you think of me? I told you I don’t care what the extent of our BDSM relationship is as long as we have one and I have you. Most of my relationships have been bedroom bondage only. I’ve had a few Master/slave ones, but it’s not vital to my happiness. You are, but I need you to want that, too.”
“I do.”
“Then why are you running, Kendall?”
“Magic crap is keeping me trapped here. What about my career? I have talent. I was meant for more than dusting and popping out babies.”
“We have a maid for the dusting, and nobody said you had to pop out little guys. I’m indifferent toward having them. Come by the house and we’ll talk.”
“No. You’ll talk me into staying, or—”
“Or what?” he growled. “Do you really think I would tie you up or lock you in a closet to keep you here when you want to be free? I love you, and if I have to let you go to prove it, then that’s what I’ll do. I had to uncollar Carsten years ago when he swore to me he wasn’t gay and begged me to let him go so he could go get cured of his natural urges like his dad wanted him to. It ripped my guts out, but I let him go because I loved him.”
“You love him more than me.”
“I love you both the same. It’s why I want to marry you, but if you need to go, then go. I’ll wait for you, but I’m not gonna wait forever. I’ll always love you like I do Carsten, but I’m not getting any younger. Eventually, people have to move on with their lives and quit being jerked around by other people.”
“I never jerked you around.”
“Didn’t you? You’re upset about being stuck here and not having a career. This is where we live, and you agreed to marry us. Nothing’s changed except for the fact that now your plans to manipulate us into moving to New York or Paris or wherever it is after we married have fallen through. Was that the plan, Kendall? ‘Cause it kind of sounds to me like you’re guilty of what you’re accusing us of.”
Damn him. Why the hell this unbidden surge of guilt?
“I have to go.” She hung up, feeling like crap.
After getting in her car and realizing she was able to drive away, she did so.
Shane sent her a text a moment later. “You only need one person’s permission to leave town, but you have to get it from all your men or you’ll wind up dead when you go. Ask Charlie before you leave. That’s an order. I’ll never forgive you or myself if you don’t.”
Not Charlie. He would never let her go. She loved that about him, but she had to go. It would kill her if she had to look him in the eye while ending things again. He would hate her for it.
Kendall kept going. She was fine. There were no cars on the road. No paranormal grenades falling from the sky to kill her. She was alone...except for the white bison standing in the distance. That was a rare sight. She’d stop to admire it if she wasn’t crying so hard and in such a hurry to get out of here.
Her heart nearly stopped when she saw a man standing in the middle of the road, forcing her to park her car and shut the engine off. It was Charlie.
* * * *
Charlie walked briskly toward the car and yanked open the door. Kendall had unbuckled, which made pulling her fleeing ass out of the car that much easier.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“I can’t stay.”
He slammed her car door shut so she couldn’t get back in. “You’re not leaving me.”
“I can’t be stuck in a little town with—”
“Men who love you, worship the ground you walk on? Lots of women want me, Red, and men. I chose you. Well, you and Quentin.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m aware of what a hot ticket item you are. I’m not your doormat.”
“I never said you were.” He stepped forward so their bodies touched and he towered over her. “I just want you to be my wife.”
“Well, apparently that means the same thing in this town.”
He cupped her buttocks when she tried to back away. “You’re mine, Kendall. I’m not letting you go.”
“You have to. I want to le
ave.” Tears slipped down her cheeks.
“No you don’t. You’re running because you’re scared, the same as when I proposed to you and brought up sharing you with Quentin and my brothers. Then you warmed up to the idea.” He ran his hands up and down her fleshy, smooth arms to comfort her, but it was having the damnedest effect on his libido. “It’ll be the same with this. Eventually you’ll get used to it and you’ll love it.”
“I don’t want to get used to it. I’m a strong, independent woman.”
He rolled his eyes and put his arm around her. “Drop the feminist speech and kiss me.”
“Fuck you.” She pushed him and stepped back because he wasn’t going anywhere. “You’ve never supported what I do.”
“I lived in San Francisco with you for years. I ran off there initially because Quentin...”
Charlie froze, getting goose bumps at the parallel. She was running away from him like he’d run away from Quentin years ago. Kendall was just like him, afraid to commit, terrified of the town curse. Quentin was the man Charlie had become. The voice of reason trying to calm their scared partner, who was too blinded by fear to realize how much they would regret losing the person they left behind.
“What?” she asked.
“Quentin proposed to me years ago and I ran off because I was afraid of commitment, just like you’re doing now. The point is, I moved to San Francisco because of him, but I stayed for you. Quit acting like I don’t support you. I paid off your school loans, for god’s sake. I praised your ideas.” He gestured with his hands as the rain dumped down on them. “All I’m asking is for you to give all that up now and raise my babies. Is that so hard? You can even wear fancy clothes you design while you’re holding them.”
She snorted. “Oh yes, sewing my own clothes and living off your income while ten babies suck on my nipples all day is not the same thing as having a career. And what about all those hussies you were with in the past? We’ll go on a date and run into everybody you fucked.”
“Don’t you think after a while they’ll get the point that I’m too in love with you to care that they even exist?”
She seemed moved by the words, but pride riled the spitfire up again. “Well, I’m not gonna be around to see it.”
“Yes, you are.”
He grabbed her when she tried to skate past him and captured her mouth with his. Her surprised squeal became an immediate sigh of hunger as she parted her lips for him. He pinned her up against the car and reached under her green dress, fingers climbing up her panties.
Her breath caught and she broke the kiss. “That’s not gonna work.”
“It always does.”
His point was pretty much made when his lips crashed down against hers again. He pushed a finger into her vagina and fucked her with it. She gasped and kissed him with more fervor, mewling softly while he moved his finger through her damp warmth.
When he felt her juices flowing and covering his finger, he pulled out and began stimulating her clitoris. She whimpered and clung to him, burying her face in his shirt.
“It won’t change anything,” she said in a voice about to break with tears.
“Yes, it will.”
It always did.
He kept rubbing her. Those tan high heels made her tall enough to kiss his neck. He felt her tears ping onto his skin when she started to shake.
“Come with me,” she pleaded in a whisper.
“My place is here, baby. We’ve got businesses here, a house, and memories. You stay with me.”
He held her close while sending her over. Her wanton cry strangled in her throat, one part pleasure and one part the anguish that was ripping them apart.
“Charlie, please.” She choked on a sob. “You’re breaking my heart.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing to mine?” He teased the more sensitive right side of her engorged clit. She always liked that.
She clung to him, sniffling and weeping softly. “We could be together. Maybe the others will come, too.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Red. Nobody’s going anywhere. Your place is here.”
“I need you.”
The words were followed by a rushing cry and a convulsing woman in his arms, making a hot mess in her panties for him.
“That’s it, baby. You come for me. Cream in your panties for me.”
His pounding erection filled out even more when he felt her hand fumbling with his fly. Once she found it, she opened his jeans with such boldness and determination, he’d half-convinced himself that his expertise had convinced her to stay.
He moved her hand after she pulled his pecker out and then fisted it by the root. His glans heated when they touched her sodden flesh. With a rough shove, he propelled himself up inside her body. A mangled cry wrung from her throat and she held onto him. He pumped his hips and worked his meat deeper until he bottomed out in her tight, wet grip.
Kendall wrapped her legs around him when he lifted her up. She kissed his neck and inhaled his skin a few times, nuzzling him while he fucked her. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“I love you, Charlie,” she said softly.
“This isn’t good-bye sex, Kendall. It’s make up sex.”
Another tear dripped onto his neck and he snapped his eyes shut when he felt it. Damn her. She wasn’t leaving. Sex always changed her mind.
He fucked her harder.
“Did you know...before the ring?”
“Don’t talk,” he rasped.
He distracted her with a light massage on her clit. She melted into him, purring and sucking on him gently with her pussy every now and then until he couldn’t think straight.
“Please tell me,” she said faintly.
“Come for me and then we’ll talk.”
Her cunt bore down hard on him when she came again.
“Yeah, baby, I knew,” he murmured into her ear.
He felt her tense while she writhed in his arms. He gave a final thrust and then spilled his release inside her. If feeling her hot, clingy flesh convulse around him had been rapture, having an orgasm inside her body was ten times better.
He held here there in his arms while he caught his breath and his sated cock still pulsed inside her, blocked the path gravity would have otherwise sent his seed down.
She held him tighter and didn’t say anything for a good long moment. After a minute, he pulled out and moved her panties back into position, pleased that she had to wear his cum all day. He tucked his dick away and zipped up his fly.
Kendall wasn’t talking and it made him nervous. She had her head down and she wasn’t crying anymore. That scared him.
Charlie fitted the button on his jeans back into the hole and then cradled her jaw. “Baby, talk to me.”
“You knew.”
“Everybody knew.”
“The curse applies to submissive men, not just women.”
He scoffed. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
“That’s why you won’t bottom for Quentin and why you didn’t marry him when he proposed years ago. You don’t want to be a prisoner, yet you expect me to.”
He winced inside. “That’s different.”
“No, it isn’t. I can’t believe you knew that all it would take is my agreeing to marry you to keep me here with you. All this time, you knew that the curse would kick in before I even wore the ring when the others didn’t.” Anger bubbled over as she reached for the door. “You knew and you didn’t care.”
“Kendall.” He grabbed her hand, prepared to fuck her again if it came to that.
“You tricked me.”
“I didn’t trick you. I asked you to marry me because I love you. We were gonna sit you down and explain things to you tonight before shopping for the ring. Nobody was trying to trick anybody into anything.”
She opened her car door. “Were you hoping I didn’t notice?”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know how to tell you. I finally had you back and I knew you’d flip the fuck out if I told yo
u, so I kept putting it off. That’s all.” He shut her door again and stood in the way.
“Get out of my way.”
He folded his arms. “You’re not leaving.”
She gritted her teeth and gave him her back. “Then I’ll walk to New York.”
He tugged her arm, stopping her.
An animal grunt floated through the air. Charlie stood there in the rain with her, gawking at the white bison that stood in the middle of the road. Its eyes glowed.
Shit.
He’d heard the legends and rumors. The white buffalo always appeared whenever some unruly woman was trying to leave town for good without asking her men first. According to myth, it was supposedly the spirit of whoever had placed the curse on McKenna Downs.
“Why are his eyes glowing?” Kendall asked in fear.
“That’s the thing that’s gonna fucking kill you if you don’t turn around and come home with me.”
“What?” She gaped at him, potent indignation etched all over her beautiful face.
“Let’s go.” He took her by the arm, but she yanked it away.
“No.”
The bison pawed at the ground, snorting in aggression. It scared the shit out of him. Charlie pushed Kendall behind him to protect her and turned sideways so he could talk to her and keep an eye on the murder buffalo at the same time.
“Goddamn it, will you just listen to me? Look at him. He’s pissed. Get in the car and I’ll drive you home.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
“Kendall, listen to me.” He cupped her face, voice frantic and demanding. “Is it worth it? Are you really willing to die for this? I’ll buy you all the clothes you want and a sewing machine.”
“This isn’t about clothes. I want my freedom.”
The bison charged. Charlie saw everything through a tunnel. It was all a blur, yet in slow motion at the same time.
“You fool, he’s coming to kill you! Say you’ll stay with me!” He screamed the words, but they sounded far away and muffled, like he was wearing earplugs.
Kendall looked petrified, but she wasn’t backing down. Tears poured down her face. “Let me go! You can’t keep me here!”
The buffalo was close enough to see how huge he was. Its eyes flashed with orange rage and the wild bellow it let out sounded eerie and not very bison-like.