by Susan Stoker
His gut tightened at the thought of her revisiting that foursome. He’d tell her it wasn’t a good idea. She should—“Shit.” He hadn’t even used a condom. As soon as he got off shift, they needed to talk.
He’d swing by after his patrol and wake her up for a good morning tussle. He stilled. He wanted her again. He wanted to wake her up by making love to her slowly this time, if that was even possible with her.
He’d just reached the fork in the dirt road when Mac flagged him down. He strode over to her. “What’s up?”
She cocked her thumb over her shoulder. “I had a complaint from one of the guests. They decided to take a walk to the barn to get away from some yelling that was going on in casita number four.”
“That’s the foursome. Did the woman relate what the yelling was about?”
Mac shook her head. “No, but she said two women were screaming in a very high-pitched tone. I asked her if it could simply be they were having sex, but she was adamant it was an argument and two women were involved.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Want me to come with you? In case the women need to talk to another woman?”
“No.” He smirked. “If it was two women arguing, my guess is the last thing they need is another woman.”
“Okay. Let me know if you need help.” Mac gave him a knowing smile. “Women can fight pretty dirty.”
He stared at her a moment.
“Just saying.” She turned and strode away.
Shaking his head at the implications of Mac’s statement, he headed for the other side of the resort.
The lights inside the main building could be seen clearly as he walked by. He glanced at the horizon before heading down the path to the guest casitas. The sky had turned a lavender-gray as darkness settled over the resort.
He didn’t hear any yelling now, but he should check in and find out what the problem was. Guests couldn’t be disturbing other guests.
As he approached the casita, he could see a couple sitting on the patio. They both had a glass of wine and appeared to be talking amicably.
“Good evening.”
They looked startled by his greeting. That wasn’t that unusual. Very few people kept abreast of what was going on around them all the time.
“Hi, there.” The blonde woman gave him a smile before letting her gaze drift down his body.
Once again he was happy his job required him to be clothed.
Her husband put down his wineglass. “You’re Hunter, right?”
He nodded. “I understand there was quite a bit of yelling going on over here.”
The blonde flushed, but her husband addressed him. “Patti and Cindy got into an argument. It was nothing. I’m sorry if it disturbed anyone.”
Hunter steadied his gaze on Patti. “It did. Some of the guests strolled over to the stables just to get away from the noise.”
Patti’s chin came up. “I’m sorry, but Cindy was trying to blame me for scaring off Adriana when it was clearly her fault.”
Scaring off Adriana? This woman obviously didn’t know Adriana very well. “Why do you think someone scared her off?” It was none of his business, but the statement had been too odd not to delve further.
Patti looked at her husband then back at him. “Because according to the forums, Adriana enjoys sex with swingers, but she has to be in charge. Since she scooted out of here just as the four of us had reached our first orgasm, I knew it was because we pissed her off by not letting her be in charge.”
Patti’s husband jumped in. “Cindy suggested Adriana watch in case she wanted to get the feel for us, but my wife had suggested she be involved.”
Hunter nodded seriously to keep from bursting out in laughter. He took a moment to give them both a serious stare until he was sure he had his humor under control. “Adriana left because she had an appointment with me.”
The couple looked at each other in surprise. Patti was the first to recover. “Well, shit. We didn’t think she had work stuff to do since she was on vacation this week.”
His humor over her term “work stuff” vanished. Their knowledge of Adriana’s schedule concerned him. “How’d you know she was on vacation?”
Patti shrugged. “The forum. There’s a whole thread on Adriana. We were being overly cautious after what happened last weekend.”
Hunter’s gut tightened. Was every second of Adriana’s life being discussed on a forum? He kept his irritation at bay. “Which forum is that thread on?”
Patti crinkled her nose. “I’m not sure. I’d have to look it up.”
He stared at her.
“Let me get my laptop.” As she walked into the casita, her husband addressed him.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, I just want to make sure Adriana is aware of this particular forum since she is being discussed.”
The husband relaxed. “Oh, I’m sure she’s aware of it. She’s actually quite the star. Our lifestyle choice is not very common, so to learn about such a vivacious woman, who works at a nudist resort no less, is very exciting. We probably should have invited her over after dinner instead of in the afternoon. We brought our new sex swing with us just so she could try it. Since she’s single, we figured she probably didn’t have one. It’s not every day a couple lugs one of these with them on vacation.”
Hunter barely kept his fingers from curling up. Instead, he concentrated on his breathing so as not to say something that would definitely piss off this guest.
“Here it is.” Patti came out with the laptop open. She stepped next to him to show him. He had to lower his head because she was very short.
“Oh here, you can hold it.”
He took the laptop from her and studied the URL first. It was a Swingers forum. He doubted Lacey had this one.
“Hey, Patti, this means you can make up with Cindy.”
The blonde squealed. “You’re right. Let’s do that right now.”
Her husband stood. “You can look through that and just leave it in our casita. We need to get up to the dining room before our friends leave.”
Patti grinned. “Yeah, if we can’t trust the resort’s security, who can we trust? Thank you so much for coming over here.”
Before he knew what she was about, she pulled his shoulder toward her and kissed his cheek. “Come on, Steve.”
The couple grabbed their towels and power-walked up the path to the main building.
Hunter took the opportunity to review the forum. The thread with the most topics was titled Adriana. He opened it and stared. Subjects ranged from “hot, hot, hot Hispanic” to “gang bang honey.”
He opened one and read. It was a detailed account of having sex with Adriana. He closed it quickly and skimmed the topics again. One caught his eye. “Dom, Dom, sub and more.” His jaw tensed as he opened it. Sure enough, it was a description of the night he’d busted in the casita. There was no mention of him, but Adriana was made out to be a bitch. The responses were mixed. Some clearly sided with Adriana. Others sided with the Dom. The user name was Dds4love.
Hunter closed out the topic and checked the URL again. Memorizing it, he shut down the computer. There was no way he’d give this to Lacey. It looked like he would need to do a lot more research and his gut told him it was going to piss him off.
Closing the laptop, he walked into the casita and placed it in the kitchen, out of view of any of the windows or doors. As he left, he closed the slider the couple had left open. They must expect him to watch over everything. Then again, Poker Flat hadn’t had anything stolen on the resort since he and Mac had come on board. Just proved the Dom incident was not the norm.
Leaving casita number four, he continued his patrol around the guest quarters before walking up to the main building. He headed around toward the pool when a conversation caught his attention.
“Did you hear? Someone p-posted pictures of guests from here on a website. Rumor is it was a staff person.” The young woman’s voice sounded familiar.
/> “Oh my Lord, who could it be?” The older woman was obviously shocked.
“I r-read on the forum that it might be Adriana. I just couldn’t imagine. I mean, if she’s that hard up for c-cash, why not just go back to s-selling herself.”
Hunter clamped his jaw hard.
“I can’t believe that of Adriana. She’s such a sweetheart.”
“Well, I g-guess you never know. Good thing the site went down. I’d hate to have my p-picture up there, even if I am a swinger.”
“Oh, we don’t do that.” The older woman’s voice sounded more concerned over swinging than photos. She must be a nudist only.
“Have a g-good night.” The young woman strode off, her unsteady steps clear in the quiet of the night. He also heard her husband with her.
That was definitely Patti. Her speech pattern, tone of voice when drunk, and her reference to swinging confirmed it. There was only four swingers at the resort this week.
She was definitely worth a closer look.
After checking the garage, he came back to the fork and strode toward Mac’s area. He wanted to confer with her. He didn’t see her, so he started with the brand new Old West town. It wasn’t exactly a town since it consisted of only one side of what would have been a main street, but it was pretty convincing.
He stepped onto the boardwalk to look into the windows of the store fronts. There was a mercantile, a sheriff’s office, saloon, bank and separated, but in line, was a blacksmith hut. He’d just stepped toward the swinging doors of the saloon when a foot came out of nowhere to trip him up.
He quickly jumped as the body that owned the foot landed on the wood beneath the batwing doors.
He chuckled, offering his hand. “Is that how you treat a guest who is wondering around at night?”
Mac grabbed on and pulled herself up. “Guests aren’t that quiet. You have damn fast reflexes.”
“The military will do that to you.”
Mac shrugged. Obviously, that wasn’t where she’d learned her skills. Her comment about women fighting dirty had his balls itching. Wherever she learned to fight, he’d bet it included moves he’d never think to use.
“Were you looking for me?” Mac brushed off her sweats.
“Yes, I just discovered I have a shitload of computer investigation to do. There is a swinger forum with a whole thread about Adriana. There has to be over three hundred topics in it, and the Dom that whipped her the other night has posts on there. I need to read everything he’s posted.”
Mac looked askance at him. “Everything?”
He took a deep breath. “Yes.”
“That might not be a good idea, Hunter. Would you like me to read through it and tell you what I find?”
“N—” He shut his mouth. Mac wasn’t Lacey. She’d seen Adriana’s activities herself and hadn’t made a judgment about them nor appeared squeamish.
“It might help your investigation if someone looked through them with an objective eye. I can always copy and paste the posts I think important.” She raised an eyebrow in question.
He still wanted to say no, but reading this Dom’s comments on Adriana’s exploits would definitely throw his objectivity right out the window. “Actually, that would save me time. I have a whole list of guests over the last month I need to research.”
“I’d be happy to help.” Mac smiled. “I don’t want to see Adriana leave here any more than you do.”
“Good. I’ll take the whole resort tonight while you work on this on your computer.”
“I’ll have a report for you by tomorrow’s shift.”
Hunter gave her the URL and took over her patrol around the Old West town as she headed back to her casita to get started. After covering the stable manager’s office, he strode into the stables.
They often covered each other for nights off, but being in the stable after his strange dream this afternoon had him hankering for a ride. He stopped by Elsa’s stall. The Arabian was badly scarred from a wildfire years ago, but Wade had bought her from Lacey’s husband. They ran a horse rescue ranch.
Did Adriana ride? He could see her up on Elsa in a pair of jeans and a tied-at-the-waist half-shirt. Elsa poked her nose over the stall door. He gave her a pet. “Sorry, girl. I don’t have anything sweet for you.”
Romeo next door heard him and looked over his door too. Hunter moved to him. The large quarter horse was impressive. He was another from Lacey and Cole’s ranch, but Hunter didn’t know his story. “Would you like to go for a ride?”
The horse looked at him expectantly, and he stroked the side of his face. It had been too long since he’d ridden. He hadn’t even had the urge until now. It was as if he were waking up. It felt wrong, like he ignored Julie’s death by feeling human again, but it wouldn’t stop and he knew exactly who to blame.
Adriana.
*
After a long night of getting his priorities straight, Hunter headed back to his casita. He’d stopped by Adriana’s around midnight on purpose. Since he was in the middle of his shift, he couldn’t have sex with her. That he’d still struggled with keeping his hands off her proved how attracted he was.
Luckily, she was on birth control, used condoms with the guests, and was tested once a month to make sure she didn’t have any sexually transmitted diseases. Her life in the bordello had ingrained good habits she said she couldn’t break, except with him.
Her obvious confusion over that fact just fed his manly pride. Shit, he had reason to feel that way. Here was a woman who usually had sex with three to four people at a time and he’d had her coming within minutes.
Unlocking his door, he picked up the guest information and threw it on the kitchen counter that separated that room from the living area. He opened his laptop, which he kept plugged in there and turned it on.
While he waited for it to boot up, he opened the fridge and stared at the protein shakes. That wasn’t going to do it if he stayed up later than usual. Pulling out the eggs, cheese and onions, he set himself up to make an omelet. He had frozen Italian sausage in the freezer, so he took it out and set it in the microwave to defrost.
Adriana had offered to cook him breakfast. Maybe he should take her up on that. Better yet, follow that with an hour in his bed. He grinned. Damn, if he didn’t feel more like his old self. It was strange, and guilt squashed his good mood.
He needed to focus on the guest list. If he couldn’t even protect Adriana, he was as worthless as he originally thought. Dumping his omelet on a plate, he grabbed a fork and walked around the counter to sit on a stool.
Pulling the laptop around to face him, he brought up a browser and started searching the names on the list, beginning with those guests still at the resort.
Two hours later, he rubbed his eyes and tried to focus on the screen, but it was hopeless. He needed sleep. So far he had more suspects than he’d thought possible. Too many local nudists worked in the damn office complex. They probably ran into each other there and chatted about Poker Flat. Hopefully, Mac could help him narrow that down with what she found in the forums.
Picking up his dirty plate, he stuck it in the sink and covered it in water. He’d start the dishwasher when he woke up. Stripping as he walked to his bedroom, he dumped his clothes in the full laundry basket. Damn, since when did he live in such a mess?
Putting that out of his mind, he crawled into bed and focused on an image of the moonlit desert he’d enjoyed while on patrol, but the vision of Adriana coming in his arms kept intruding. “Shit.”
Rolling over, he punched his pillow down. Again, the vision of her head thrown back, eyes closed and mouth open in a loud scream as the pinks from the sky bathed her in their glow, invaded his mind.
He could feel her sheath squeeze as her fulfillment took over.
There was no way his mind would go anywhere else. If he wanted to sleep, he had to give in to it. He allowed the image to morph into having her in his bed like he’d originally wanted to. In no time, he drifted off, making love to her.
*
Hunter’s alarm went off early so he could do more research before his shift. Feeling unusually rested, he shaved and showered. There was something about Adriana that canceled out all negative memories and feelings. He didn’t like it because he didn’t deserve it, yet he gravitated to her.
Once dressed, he opened the laptop. Without Mac’s information, he could be wasting his time, especially if she was able to narrow it down. He hoped it wasn’t just the threesome with the Dom that bashed Adriana because only one of them worked in the office complex and it wasn’t the Dom. A narrower search would take a lot less time. If that forum was reporting Adriana still had her job then whoever was trying to frame her might become more aggressive. The sooner they found the culprit the better.
He glanced out his sliders, which showed it was still bright, but the sun would soon set.
Fuck. He closed the laptop and stuffed his keys in his pocket. He moved around the counter and threw lunch meat, cheese, bread, strawberries and a couple bottles of water into a plastic bag. On the way out the door, he grabbed up his rifle. His need to be with Adriana was too strong.
Hunter strode down past the two casitas separating his from hers. He wished she lived next door now when weeks ago he was glad to have a few buildings between them. He shook his head at himself.
As he approached, he heard swearing coming from inside since she had most of her windows open. He strode around back to her slider to find it wide open as well. The woman was very trusting.
As he stepped into her living room, his lips quirked. Adriana had a mouth like an infantryman.
“You better fucking fit in there you cock-sucking motherfucker or I’m going to make you wish you were the fibers of a Goddamn rug.”
He moved to the door of her bedroom to find her sitting on a liquor box overflowing with material of some sort, in her signature cut off jean short shorts and sleeveless white button-down shirt tied under her breasts. He leaned against the doorframe, cradling the rifle in his arm. “What are you doing?”
Adriana jumped up and stared at him. “Holy Hell, where the devil did you come from?”