Tame Me: A Filthy Billionaire Romance

by Cassandra Bloom

  When Taylor awakes, he finds Kami. He wants her, but he cannot have her. What does it matter anyway when his life of before is over? Then his real destiny comes to get him, as he finds the family curse flows through his veins with the rise of the sun.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Three Months Later

  Nowhere Trading Post, Nowhere, Arizona

  The hot, dry wind swirled the desert dust up into little devils across the spans of the deserted parking lot. The men known far and wide as the Fixtures of Nowhere sat in their rocking chairs. The three men were protected from the blaze of the Arizona sun as they rocked in unison on the long shaded veranda in front of the Nowhere Trading Post. Quiet for once, they watched the dust devils spin off into different directions.

  Jasp turned to Jinx. “So, have you heard anything about them?”

  “Nope.” Jinx shrugged.

  “Have you, Bucky?” Jasp leaned out from his rocking chair.

  Bucky shook his head at him.

  Jasp leaned back and began to rock his chair just as he always did when he was working up to a whopper of a tale. “Yep, her and that warrior are probably still up on that mountain in the Lightning Cave. What a story this is gonna make for the tellin’ to them tourists!”

  The other two old-timers rolled their eyes simultaneously while they stared out at the empty asphalt of the old road to see no one at all, let alone tourists.

  “Yep, I knew the very moment she came here, that she was sumpthin’ special!”

  The other two giggled like girls.

  The image of Madeline Sayers when she first came to Nowhere, a few months back had been scored into their memories. A tall, lithesome woman with long shapely legs, standing in front of the verandah in the desert heat, tugging at her flimsy sundress as it stuck to her supple form.

  “Why it was nearly see-thru material!” Jinx blurted out.

  Her long red curls had hung over her face while she bent over to pull the dress back down past those shapely thighs. She was the loveliest vision any of them had ever laid their old eyes on.

  Jasp sighed. “Yes, sincerely a sight made in heaven.”

  All three seemed to sigh together. They all sat forward in their rocking chairs as a car approached.

  It was a Jeep.

  “Here comes her Daddy now,” Jasp announced unnecessarily.

  Rick Sayers got out of his dusty vehicle and looked over at the three fixtures up on the porch. The good-looking artist shook his head with a smile as he walked up the steps.

  “Heya’, Sky Cutter!” Jasp called out with a huge grin on his old face.

  “How ya guys doing?” Rick shook his head with humor.

  In unison, they nodded their grey heads at him.

  He smiled and stood at the door. The welcome sign read:

  Welcome to Nowhere and Nothing

  If you are lookin’ for something?

  You won’t find it here!

  Rick grinned at the old not so welcome sign and went in through the door.

  “Yep, sure surprised Sky Cutter when Madeline showed up here, carrying that carved wooden box and announcing that she was his daughter and all,” Jasp continued as though there had been no interruption.

  Jinx and Bucky nodded their heads in agreement.

  “Yep.” He stopped rocking and leaned forward. “Did we ever find out what was in that there box?”

  Jinx and Bucky shook their heads at him.

  He leaned back again, and began to rock. “Yeah, there could be all kinds of things in that funny box.”

  “Unh-huh,” the other two agreed.

  “I mean it had all those strange Hualapai Indian markings on it and all.” He started to rock his chair a little faster.

  The other two sat back and waited for the story.

  “Yeah, it came from that there beautiful, but dead woman photographer whom he loved so long ago. The one who left him ‘cause she was already engaged to his brother.” His rocking sped up in movement, and his old blue eyes brightened with that trademark gleam he always got when he was about to launch into a glory story. “Yeah, and I wonder if he ever opened it?”

  Jinx and Bucky peeked sideways at him.

  The inevitable story was about to be spun and it would in Jasp’s usual outlandish style. He would surely add a few new unbelievable, supernatural elements along with some new twists and turns.

  RICK

  Rick shook his head with humor as he heard one of the old men chortle from out front. They called him Sky Cutter, but in reality, it was the Indian tribe that dubbed him with the name. Only one other person called him by a single name. “Cutter…” Rick heard her sweet voice in his mind. It always sounded so real and had haunted him for many years. He raised his head. Can’t I go one day, just one hour without thinking of her? His hands shook a little as his eyes swung over to the painting of Phoebe.

  With effort, he closed his eyes and forced the bittersweet feelings away. He began the slide of his tool again, and blew the chips away from the wooden cut. He looked up to see the sunlight cascade down through the large window. He loved to work here at the back of the post, where the light came in at just the right angle. He was aiming for a life-like statue of Maddy, the only true thing he had left of Phoebe. Only, he knew he could never capture that beautiful bright twinkle Maddy had in her eyes these days.

  She didn’t always have that look. Not until Devon came along. I wonder where they are? He shook his head. They’ll show up, whenever that sunset honeymoon winds down.

  He heard one of the men let out a wolf whistle from the store area and smiled as he thought of the three old coots who sat in their rocking chairs in front of the post. He knew very little of their backgrounds or their pasts. All of them just went by one nickname each. It used to be that they knew none of his past either. That’s why he’d settled here, so no one would know about his past. And I was safe from it, and managed to almost block the memories of her out, until the box came.

  Curiosity ran through him once again. Could it really be empty? It sat on the worktable right where Madeline had left it. Why think about it? It wouldn’t make any difference now.

  He remembered when he and his newfound daughter talked about the final request from Phoebe and the box which brought Madeline to Nowhere. He could hear Madeline’s voice in his head when she gave him the box. “It was her last request, for me to bring it to you...”

  Nowhere, Arizona, several months ago

  “Come and sit.” Rick set the wooden box on a worktable and pulled up a stool. “I made this for her.” He smiled. “It was my first piece of wood.”

  Madeline sat down quietly.

  Reaching into his shirt, he pulled out a chain. On it was a little skeleton key. He yanked it from his neck and handed it to her.

  She took it and stared at him. “Why give it to me?”

  With a frustrated motion, he put a hand through his hair. “I just can’t.”

  “What’s in the box, Rick?”

  He looked away. “I don’t really know.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “I gave it to her empty after i made it, and for all I know—it still is.”

  She shook her head “No, not when it involves Phoebe! She wouldn’t send me all the way out here with an empty box.”

  “When it involves an Indian Shadow Box like this—you never know what it might have inside.”

  “A what?” She looked puzzled.

  “A memory box.” He chuckled with a dry humorless sound. “A place to keep what means more to you than anything.” He got off the stool. “Like you would put memories in and they are just shadows of what used to be, but locked away and safe.”

  “Why haven’t you opened it?” She stared down at the key.

  “For me?” He took a few steps over to a wood sculpture. “There can be nothing but pain in that box.”

  “So you want me to open it for—?”

  Irritated at his own weakness, he spun around. “I don’t know!” Hi
s voice rose. “I’ve spent my life drifting, looking for...”

  “Her?” She finished the statement.

  “Yeah, and I never found what I had lost.”

  “All my colors, all my pictures and I lost it.” Madeline rubbed the goose bumps that rose on her arms.

  Rick stared at her.

  “Did I just say that out loud?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “It was what Phoebe said.” Madeline gulped at his expression. “Just before she died.”

  “To find it, when you weren’t even looking for it?” He curled his hands into fists. “And then, you glory in it—allow yourself to feel all that wonder and passion while it shakes you to the core.” He stepped forward and pushed a sculpture over, the chips of polished pine scattering across the floor. The sound echoed loudly, as it had cracked straight down the middle. He continued to the next one and pushed it over.

  “Rick?”

  “It was like, yeah, here is the most splendid thing in the world!” He tore a painting from the wall and looked down at it. “Yes, go ahead and taste it, feel it.” He pushed his fist through the canvas. “But you can’t keep it. It’s not yours to keep!”

  Madeline raised her hands to her mouth as her eyes widened at him.

  “And, then?” He dropped the ruined art. “One day, it’s just gone and you feel it’s leaving like someone ripped out your guts.”

  “Rick, I—”

  “After a while, all you know is what it’s like to have all the light and all the color fade from your world. And still, you can’t seem to stop. You look for it everywhere in every woman, in every place you come to.” He walked over to Phoebe’s painting. “And you spend the next decade trying to recapture it.” Rick touched the brushed cheek of Phoebe’s face in the painting. “All that color—all that light...”

  Now all these months later… Rick had felt sorry after Maddy witnessed all that anger he still carried from losing Phoebe all those years ago. He dropped the carving tool from his hand, and took the steps needed to reach the table. He stared at the box and a wrenching turned in his gut again. “All that color and all that light…” The words came back to haunt him. The little skeleton key still set inside the lock, where Maddy had left it.

  If I really believed it to be empty, then why be so afraid to open it? He reached out and pulled it closer.

  Lifting the lid, he peered up at the ceiling, still too afraid to look inside. What if it’s a letter to me? I can’t read it. The only way I can survive is to not think of her, not remember her. He moved away from the table. Yeah, so I’m a chicken shit! Picking up his tool, he tried to see where his last tracing on the wood had been. A strange glimmering appeared on the wood below his tool. He placed a finger on it, and the light moved higher.

  What the hell? He stared all around and his searching gaze halted when he spotted the box. The same light shone from it like a streaming flashlight beam. He dropped the tool to the floor, walked over to the table and peeked into the box. The light went out as he stared in fascination. “Well, I’ll be God Dammed—no way!”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  MADELINE

  Hualapai Mountains, above Nowhere, Arizona

  Huffing and puffing, Madeline dragged the piece of wood all the way up the rocky path, and now it was definitely stuck. She couldn’t raise it above the rock face.

  Dev had been gone all day. Out of boredom, she took a walk through the surrounding area of the Lightning Cave. She’d thought if she waited until later, she might not be able to find the piece again. It would be perfect for Rick’s wood art. She released a huffing breath. “So what am I supposed to do now?” She remembered saying those very words a lifetime ago, her first day in Nowhere, when she’d gotten the entire back end of the rental car stuck over a sand embankment.

  It had happened on a day much like this one, the sun coming down in waves of glaring heat.

  Madeline remembered standing next to her car, feeling frustrated and overheated. She could still hear his sweet, warm voice…

  “Yeah, what are you going to do?”

  Jumping back, she peered up at the embankment. A tall man stood there at the highest part.

  The stranger moved down the rocky slope with ease even though it was steep. “What are you gonna do, now that you’re stuck?” He was tall and young, about her age maybe. He had dark hair, tied back in a ponytail. He grinned at her.

  She stared at him with her mouth agape. He looked familiar in some strange way, but not. Madeline shut her open mouth. “Who the hell are you?”

  He drew a little closer, and studied the car’s back end. “Yep, it’s stuck pretty good.”

  She’d gaped at him as she asked, "Where did you come from?”……

  Madeline blinked her eyes in remembrance and stared down at the piece of wood she’d been carrying. Yeah, where did he really come from?

  “Always in trouble!” Dev called out with a laugh interrupting the memory. He sat astride that black horse of his and with his usual agility, he jumped down to the ground right next to her.

  “I got it all the way up here.” She pouted. “And now it’s stuck!”

  “And you’re stuck, too.” He winked.

  “You always get me out of it though.”

  His smile faded. “And, I always will.”

  “I hope so.”

  “I will be here.” He stepped closer

  She decided to change the touchy subject. “So, how do I get it out?”

  “A rope and my horse?” He tilted his head at her.

  A half hour later, their horse rode over the path to the cave.

  Dev helped her from the horse and slid her body sensuously down over his chest.

  Madeline felt her nipples harden from the buttons on his shirt.

  “How about a swim?” He held her up, her feet dangling just above the ground.

  “But, we haven’t been in the lightning pool ever since well— You know? Because of—” she stuttered to a halt.

  He threw his head back with a laugh, and let her feet touch the ground.

  “Are you teasing me, again?” she asked.

  “Did I ever stop?”

  She laughed with him.

  The grin on his face grew as he carried her to the small round pool.

  “You’re really serious about this?” she asked.

  “Remember when I first drew you in?” He reminded her.

  “You said the pool was for lovers.” Madeline had never understood how the lightning pool could exist. It was filled with pure rainwater, and when it encompassed your skin? She shivered. It was a pure, irresistible aphrodisiac.

  “And, we are lovers now,” he whispered close to her lips.

  “What about…?”

  Dev locked eyes with her. “About?”

  “You know—the Brave?”

  “You went postal on me and it drew him out!” He rolled his eyes up.

  She released a nervous breath.

  “I thought that you liked it when he shows up?” Dev hinted at the hot sex-taming.

  “Yes, but it was really...”

  Again, he seemed to be enjoying the teasing and he chuckled at her blushing.

  “You’re laughing at me again, Dev!”

  “Can I help it if you make me happy?” He shook his head with a smile. She grew too quiet, and he peered down at her face. “We don’t have to if you—”

  “Don’t you dare say it!” she cut him off.

  “What?” He assumed an innocent expression.

  “Daring me!” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Calling me chicken and shit like that.”

  Dev laughed uproariously, and without any hesitation, he dropped her into the pool.

  “Oh!” Madeline shouted as the cool, silky water hit her skin. Her mind filled up with what had happened the last time they were in this pool. The images pulsed through her as if the water held the memory in its properties. She could see it clearly and even feel it violently.

 
The memory flooded her mind…

  “Ohh...” She felt him thrust his cock deeper into her. “Aww, fuck!” she shouted as her whole body shuddered.

  The Brave pulled her up a little and thrust even deeper. She winced, it was so violent, but she reveled in it.

  “Yes,” he whispered to her ear as he lifted her up.

  She trembled and her chest heaved. “More!” She was climaxing.

  “A hot woman...” His deep voice echoed through her.

  She was out of control, out of herself. “Ahh!” she yelled out, as he moved her to the table, and pulled out of her.

  “No,” she panted desperately. “No...”

  He had reached around and grasped her breasts. “Mmm,” he groaned as he pinched her nipples hard.

  Her body responded as it jerked straight up with the sound and the rough pinching…

  ….Madeline’s body shuddered with the erotic memory, and she could still hear that deep, male-sounding moan in her mind. No man had ever before reached the sensual woman she had locked up inside her. I’ve never been ravaged like that before in my whole life, and I became addicted from that point on.

  Dev looked down at her with a huge grin on his tan face.

  She wiped the water from her eyes and tried to blot out the pornographic images. “Well?”

  “Well, what?” He crossed his arms over his chest.

  Her mouth popped open with shock.

  He laughed loudly at her astonished expression.

  “Oh no, you don’t, mister!” The heat rushed up along her skin.

  “What?” he asked in an overly innocent tone.

  “You’re just gonna let me get...?” Her question faded with disbelief.

  “Oh, yes. You get so hot and desperate.” His voice lowered. “And it’s so… Mmm,” he purred low in his throat.

  Madeline bit down on her lip when she felt a wave of desire rise up. “This isn’t fair, Dev!” Her voice shook with the effects of the water.

  He grinned. “All’s fair in love and hot sex, my dear.”

  “Are you gonna just let me?”