COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1)

by Amanda Boone

  “So anyway after she has been for a pee-pee, then Betsy must have gotten some paper caught on her stubble, and I find it with my tongue. This means she doesn’t wash before coming to me.” Raine nodded in sympathy, not feeling much at all.

  “You do know what this all means, don’t you?” Raine asked after a few minutes of failing to wipe the image of Celine and Betsy from her mind. Celine’s face lit up.

  “Do you mean it?” She squealed, as excited as a little kid at Christmas.

  “We’re going to have a girls’ night out.” Celine clapped her hands. “Oh, I must get my hair done, and I need to go shopping. ’You’ll come with me won’t you, darling? And I’m going to need new shoes and...”

  Raine smiled. It didn’t take much to make Celine happy again, despite the fact she was a business genius.

  The phone chimed as Celine babbled on about the new purchases she might make, and Raine grabbed the handset, hoping it was Antony calling from wherever he had managed to land.

  “Hello?” Raine breathed. She was met with silence, and her face fell.

  “Darling?” Celine asked. “What is wrong?”

  Raine hung up the phone and tried to force a smile. “It’s nothing really,” she said. “Not long after we moved in here, I started getting these calls. ’There’s no sound, no voice, nothing in the background, but...I know there’s someone there.” She sniffed. “It only seems to happen when Antony’s gone away. We never get any calls when he’s here and...”

  Celine got her cellphone out and called a number.

  “Jackson, Celine. I need some phone work done.” Her tone was completely different to when she spoke to Raine, tough and commanding as she gave this Jackson Raine’s address and phone number. “Get me a list of all the numbers calling here in the last four months.” She demanded and then just hung up. Raine was astounded. “What?” Celine asked.

  “Who was that, and who did you turn into?”

  Celine smiled. “That was Jackson. He does...certain undercover things for us.”

  “Illegal things?” Raine asked.

  Celine waved her hand back and forth uncertainly. “Not really illegal, darling, but he can get information when others can’t.”

  “What about you? It was like you were someone else.”

  Her friend chuckled. “That was my business voice. I use it for work all the time, or people do not take me seriously, with me being so fabulous and beautiful.”

  Raine laughed.

  ***

  Later, she got the call again and really listened hard to see if she could pick up on any little sound that might come through the line. Apart from a few clicks, there was nothing. Almost as soon as she put the phone down, it chirped again, and she almost screamed.

  Picking up the handset she snarled into it. “Now listen to me you sick fucker...”

  “Raine?” The puzzled voice was one she knew well.

  “Antony.” She breathed and her entire body warmed. “Hi, babe.”

  “Who is this sick fucker you are talking to?”

  “Nobody, babe. I just keep getting these weird calls where no one talks,” She explained. “How are you?”

  “Tired from the flight and missing you.”

  His words warmed her inside, chasing all the chills and fright from the odd calls away. “Where are you?” She wanted to know.

  “In a hotel in Detroit. I have just ordered room service and wanted to hear your voice.”

  Raine smiled but felt a little guilty. “Didn’t you want to go out or to the bar in the hotel?”

  “No, some of the other guys said they were going to hit the bar, hoping to pick up a woman, but I only have eyes for you, so I didn’t want to go. Plus any women hanging around in hotel bars are probably prostitutes anyway.” He laughed. “I expect some of these idiots will end up paying for it in more ways than one. How are you?”

  “Bored and lonely. Much better for hearing your voice though.”

  Raine and Antony chatted about nothing for a while, before coming around to Celine.

  “She has split up with another woman?”

  Antony exclaimed, “I swear she is going to run out of lesbians if she’s not careful.”

  Raine giggled. “She might have to turn straight.”

  “Ha! Fat chance of that. I remember back in France, when we were growing up, the amount of boys who got up the courage to ask her out, and she would look at them like they were crap and just go, ‘Non.’ Then she would walk away like they were nothing.” He chuckled. “I can also remember her first crush.”

  Raine was hooked on the story.

  “Ooh, tell me everything.”

  “She was English, Jessica or something, sent over to finish her education in France, practice speaking the language, you know. As soon as Celine laid eyes on her, I knew she had fallen for her.”

  “How old were you then?”

  “I was sixteen, I think, and Celine’s younger, so maybe fifteen. I don’t know about Jessica but around that age too.”

  “Did you know she was gay back then?” Raine asked.

  “I think I knew she was gay before she realized it,” he said. “I mean, we were like brother and sister almost from the first time we met, so I could see when she looked at women in the street, not men.” He laughed. “It was quite funny. She must have thought I was blind because she was so nervous when she told me, but I just said, ‘Oui, je sais’. I know this already.’”

  Raine fell silent, trying to quell the irrational jealousy she felt over Celine and Antony’s friendship. Celine had known him for years, and they had a bond Raine couldn’t share. Knowing it was irrational didn’t make it any easier for Raine, but she managed to squash it down regardless.

  “I love you, Antony.” she told him in a quiet voice, the miles between them like a dagger twisting in her gut.

  “I love you more,” he said.

  She smiled. “Not possible.”

  “Is too,” he declared

  “No,” she chuckled. “I love you more, and that’s the end of it.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  Raine laughed loud then. “Hey, I sort of said I’d go out with Celine now that she’s single again. Is that okay with you?”

  “As long as you don’t let her empty the business accounts on your shopping trip beforehand, I don’t have a problem.”

  “How did you know we were shopping?”

  “Raine, I have known that woman more than half my life. I know she absolutely needs six new pairs of shoes and four outfits to choose from.”

  Raine laughed.

  “You are getting something as well?” Antony asked.

  “No, I’ve got enough clothes and enough shoes. I’ll just wear something I’ve got.”

  “But if you buy something new, I can look forward to peeling you out of it when I get home.”

  A spike of desire lanced through Raine, and her mind filled with images of their lovemaking.

  “Well, if you put it that way.” Her voice had deepened with lust. “Fuck, I wish you were here.”

  “Me too,” Antony said in a seductive tone. “I would be kissing your neck, standing behind you with my hands running up and down your breasts and belly. Can you feel me?” Raine lay back on the bed, knowing what he was going to do, and touched herself where his voice guided.

  “Mmhmm...” She breathed, already hot. Raine listened to the sound of Antony’s voice, urging her on to touch herself. Raine’s breathing sped up and her pulse beat quickened as her hand traveled down below the waistband of her pajamas.

  “Feel my tongue as I lick your clit,” Antony growled.

  Raine moaned as her fingertips slid wetly across the top of her clitoris, sending pleasure and heat up through her body.

  “Oh, yeah,” she whined as his words and her fingers brought her quickly to the edge of orgasm. As she listened to the words dripping from Antony’s mouth, through the phone and into her ear, Raine squealed through her orgasm.

  “I s
till wish you were here,” she eventually managed to say. “I want to feel you inside me.”

  “I want that too,” he replied, “and I will be home soon, to give you everything you wish for.”

  They hung up after saying goodbye, and Raine curled up in her large, empty bed and eventually fell asleep.

  ***

  Celine met Raine in one of the small terminals, which served the modest airport near Raine’s home. In typical Celine style, she had booked them tickets on a plane to New York, planning to shop in some of Manhattan’s more expensive boutiques. She spent the short flight, and some of the taxi ride, taking various phone calls, making Raine wonder what she contributed to their lives. Both Antony and Celine earned money through their company, ADB Holdings, but Raine did nothing now that her journalism career had come to an abrupt end. Her thoughts had turned, again, to writing a novel. She could embellish the strange things, which had happened in her own life and see if it sold.

  “Earth t0 Raine?” Celine muttered in her ear. Raine jerked around.

  “Sorry?”

  “No. I’m sorry for having to be on the phone all morning. What is it you were thinking about?”

  “Oh, I was just thinking about writing again, and don’t worry about the calls, I know business has to come first,” Raine replied.

  “What writing? Reporting again?”

  “No...a book?”

  Celine looked intrigued. “What kind of book?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, just a novel.” She felt shy for some reason.

  “What about?”

  Raine laughed. “I don’t really know, Celine. I haven’t got a full plan written out or anything.”

  “Okay, all right. ’Don’t get so defensive.” Celine teased. “I was just wondering if you might base the main character on someone you know?”

  “Now, I have thought about that,” Raine said. “I want her to be a tall, blond businesswoman, possibly from a different country or culture and...”

  “She’s a lesbian, right?”

  “Straight as a Texas highway.” Raine giggled.

  Celine nudged her and laughed herself.

  The French woman managed to spend four hours selecting and trying on different dresses. At two different locations, she had the women who worked in the shops running about with various dresses, shoes, handbags and scarves. She was even passed the number of one of the women, but whether it was for a job or a date, she threw it away without a glance.

  “Are you going to get something, darling?”

  “Here?” Raine almost screamed. “There isn’t enough material in the whole shop to go round me!”

  “Don’t be silly, of course they will have something for you.”

  Raine just tipped her head to one side and looked at Celine as if she was crazy. She turned her attention to the most senior of the women, who had been fluttering around Celine for a while, and felt no surprise when she shook her head.

  “See?” Raine asked. “I’ll stop off at Kmart or something, don’t worry about it.” She grinned at Celine.

  “Kmart?” Celine looked horrified. “Are you being serious with me?”

  “No,” Raine said lightly before turning to leave. They took a cab and stopped at one of Celine’s favorite bistros, where the French woman smelled some of the foods on offer, and Raine actually ate some.

  “What is wrong, Raine?” her friend asked.

  Raine wrinkled her nose and sighed. “It’s just the way those women back there looked at me like I’m some kind of genetic experiment, mutated from the norm.” Raine sat back and fixed Celine with a stare. “I’ve always been big. Got big hips and a belly. I do have to buy my clothes at different places than you. I don’t know. It just gets me down sometimes.” Celine covered her hand with hers.

  “Do you think I don’t like you for you?” Raine shook her head, “And Antony?” Raine shook her head again, “That boy thinks you are gorgeous, darling, no matter how big your hips are.” She smiled. “He has never wanted to live with a woman before, so you should feel special to him for that.”

  Raine could feel a deep pull inside her, not arousal, but something far more powerful and exotic as she thought about Antony. His face rose in her mind, a picture so clear it was as if he stood before her and knew what she felt was the deepest, most complete love for him she could feel. Nothing, no one, in her life had ever made her feel like he did. Her body came to life with just his presence in the room, and his touch roused fire in her veins.

  “...ridiculous.” She caught the end of Celine’s sentence.

  “Sorry, what?” Raine asked.

  “I said it is ridiculous how when you are thinking of him you disappear from the world. You get this strange look in your eyes, as if you can see him, feel what he is doing.”

  Raine smiled at her friend. “I can see him. I can visualize every pore in his face, the little fold of skin he’s got behind his right ear but not his left, and that way he has of smiling when the left side of his mouth goes up a little higher than the right. I know what that scar on his left shoulder feels like when I run my tongue along it, and it tastes different than the rest of his skin.”

  Celine held her hand up. “Enough. This makes me feel ill,” she said, but the smile on her face told a different story.

  “You know,” Raine started, “if I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were jealous.”

  Celine looked as if Raine had kicked her in the crotch. “Of what?” Her French accent came through thickly. “I am liking women, Raine. I am not after your boyfriend. Plus I ‘ave known him since we were kids! Trust me, if I wanted ‘im I could ‘ave ‘ad ‘im years ago.” Several other customers had turned to stare at the screeching woman, but realizing this was just another day in New York, they turned back to their meals. Celine sat with her nostrils flared and red spots on her cheeks, clearly aggressive. Raine gently offered her an explanation.

  “What I meant was it’s like you’re jealous of what we have. The bond we’ve got. I know you’re not interested in him like that, and I know he’s your oldest friend. I’d never want to jeopardize that. I never want to come between you two.”

  Celine actually looked embarrassed. “Oh. I did not understand you.” She tilted her head from side to side. “You are right, I suppose. It would be nice to have what you and Antony have got. I am nearly thirty, and I have never had a lasting relationship.” She turned sad. “I do not know why I can’t keep a girlfriend.” Celine’s lower lip fell forward into an adorable little pout.

  “You honestly don’t’ get it?” Raine asked.

  “No. What?”

  “You’ve got so many choices,” Raine told her. “You’re beautiful, sexy, clever and rich and you haven’t let that turn you into a complete bitch! That’s your problem, I think. You don’t have to work at a relationship because as soon as you find a little problem, you just go and get someone new.” Raine explained this to Celine as gently as she could, and the Frenchwoman seemed to listen.

  “Maybe.” she nodded. “Maybe you’ve got it right.” Her face darkened a little. “So why did my friend not tell me this before?” She demanded crossly.

  Raine just shook her head. “Because you seemed happy with your life. How was I supposed to know you wanted more when you look quite happy flitting from one woman to the next?”

  The pair fell silent until Celine asked, “What should I do?”

  Raine smiled at her kindly. “Muddle through like the rest of us?” Celine rolled her eyes.

  “You are no help at all!”

  ***

  No sooner had Raine opened the front door and stepped through, she knew something was wrong. Call it a sixth sense or feminine intuition, but even though she had not lived there for too long, she knew something was amiss.

  “What? Let me in. It is cold!” Celine hissed from behind when Raine paused just inside.

  “No,” she whispered back. “Something’s not right.” Raine flicked on the light switch to her right, filling t
he large hall with a warm glow from the large, overhead lamps. Nothing looked to be wrong. The small table, with an aspidistra sitting on it, was undisturbed, and the few pictures on the wall were as straight and level as always. Raine risked a glance up to the second floor, only just managing to stop herself from calling out to ask if anyone was there.

  Celine managed to shove her way in and dumped the several bags worth of items she had bought earlier that day, scanning around to see what was happening.

  “What is it, darling? The place looks fine to me.”

  Raine just shook her head slowly, the tingle of something at the base of her skull told her something was wrong, and for the first time in her life, Raine wished she owned a gun.

  Stepping quietly through into the kitchen, Raine flicked on more lights, banishing the evening gloom, which coated everything like a thick film of tar. She took a deep breath in and smelled...coffee. Her eyes flicked to the coffee machine, and she studied it for a second, looking at the few last drips of dark liquid in the bottom, the clear glass which...

  Wait a second, we left before ten this morning, and it’s just after six now, so how come the coffee pot hasn’t got any condensation in it?

  Raine made her way over to her prized possession and knew, even before her fingers touched it, the glass would be hot. Her fingertips came away tingling from the heat. Someone had only just turned it off, and they could still be inside the house now. She knew it wasn’t Antony, as he would have called to see where she was, or left a note, if he was going to get some sleep, telling her to come and wake him for some carnal fun.

  “Celine!” Raine hissed. “Celine, where are you?”

  No answer came from the hall. Raine’s heart was beating hard in her chest, and she felt dizzy and sick to think someone had been in their home, touching their things.

  She grabbed the phone. Sure there would be no dial tone, but the familiar muted buzz rang from the handset. Jabbing buttons, she phoned Antony, who picked up after a couple of rings.

  “Bonsoir, mon amour. How...”

  “Someone’s been in the house,” she whispered hoarsely into the line. She heard something bang from his end and a rustling sound.

  “What?” The tone of his voice had changed from sleepily happy to anxious in half a second.