A Perfect Dilemma

by Zoe Dawson

  “When I was tasked with writing the speech for this Founder’s Day, I continued, “I originally decided I wanted to write about friendship and its importance in our lives.” I met my younger brother’s eyes, and Jake nodded and smiled. “But I discovered something more pressing to tell you. I discovered my ancestor, Colonel Beauregard Sutton, was harboring a terrible secret. I think it’s best if I simply read the final entry from his last journal to you.

  “There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to look at what he has done in the past and make amends and retribution. I am at that point in my life. I’m dying, and I regret what I have done. When I was a younger man, I was greedy. I wanted a legacy that would last during my lifetime and beyond. I wanted it with a passion. It burned in me. I was willing to do anything to create that legacy.

  “On April 12, 1865, after the war ended, I was alerted to a payroll coming through. I ambushed those men and took the gold, and I built Suttontowne on the blood money.”

  I had to pause as the murmurs began to run like wildfire through the audience. People next to the Outlaws were gaping at the news.

  I continued reading, “There was a terrible repercussion from that act so long ago, one I have regretted until today, my dying day. Duel Outlaw was hanged by an angry mob, all because he was kind when I was destitute. The taint from my crime has followed his family.

  “I’ve done what I could for his widow and his three children, but the hatred runs deep. I’m penning this journal so my next of kin will make this right. I, even at the end of my life, cannot find the courage to face it. I hope they will. Hope they will find the courage I never had to own up to what I did. And an innocent man died in my stead because of his generosity and friendship. He died because the mare I was riding when I murdered those soldiers and stole the gold was his.

  “Duel Outlaw was the best friend I’d ever had. An upstanding citizen, decorated in battle, a medic who saved countless men’s lives. He was a good daddy and a hard-working and dedicated husband who loved his Amy more than anything in this world. I am ashamed he was killed in my stead. Ashamed that his family has been persecuted all these years for what I have done. Ashamed that his blood and the blood of those men are on my hands. Please make this right. May God have mercy on my soul. I am Colonel Beauregard Sutton and these are my last words.”

  As I closed the book, I faced the crowd. The murmurs got louder, but I stood there and waited until they quieted down. “I have one more thing to say.” I looked at Brax, Booker and Boone in turn, then at Evie. Her eyes filled. “Fourteen years ago Brody Outlaw came to work for my family. My cousin Earl, in fact. Mr. Outlaw had just received his bookkeeper certificate and was so happy to get the job to support his family.

  “It was rumored that he had stolen money and left town, but recently we found out Earl had murdered him. Earl had been embezzling money and Brody Outlaw discovered his crime. Brody Outlaw was an innocent man just like Duel. Both of them good daddies and upstanding citizens.

  I took a painful breath. “For the part my family played in these tragic events,” my voice broke. “I am heartily sorry.”

  Brax got out of his chair and was up on the stage so fast. He took me in his arms and I pressed my face to his chest.

  “Thank you, sugar,” he murmured, his voice thick. “Thank you.”

  Hand in hand, Brax and I walked back down the stairs with Chase following. The crowd erupted into loud conversation. It would be a while before this died down. But I only had eyes for Braxton.

  Later that night Outlaws was packed to the rafters while the Outlaw triplets celebrated their twentieth birthdays. Everyone in Suttontowne had been invited. Not everyone came, but my momma and daddy attended, along with Jake, and even Chase. There was so much buzz about them now that I had cleared their names. They were free of the curse, exonerated. Not everyone would come around. Old feelings died hard, and bias still remained, but it was enough that we had gotten past their past.

  Brax and I were buoyantly happy.

  I stood between Aubree and Verity, who was holding Duel. He was reaching out to Brax onstage, laughing his adorable baby laugh. He adored his uncle.

  It hadn’t taken me long to decide what I wanted to do. I went to Lafayette and applied for the art teacher’s job. I also started looking for retail space for my own art gallery and Brax had already made space for me to have a studio in his house. I would be teaching more workshops at Art Explosion. I planned to sell my paintings and showcase my students, as well as look for new, talented artists. It made me so happy.

  Brax’s voice, amplified by the microphone, could be heard throughout the bar. “Thanks to everyone who came tonight to help make our blowout party a total success. I wrote this song for the three of us when I was in high school. We’d like to sing it for y’all now.

  Booker started with a beautiful melody, beckoning to Aubree, who approached the stage and settled next to him on the piano seat. Then his sultry voice crooned:

  A perfect girl

  Most likely to succeed

  That’s you

  Broken where no one could see

  Except me

  No one except me.

  Aubree gave him a wide grin, and Booker returned one of his knee-melting Outlaw grins, famously known as The Swoon. She slipped her arm around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. He sang:

  You take my breath away

  Bars around my heart

  dissolve

  For a girl like you

  Locked up, held down

  Outlaw

  Outcast

  Branded

  I want to touch you

  You strip me bare.

  Hold you

  You break me

  Love you

  You are perfect

  And make you mine

  The girl I see

  I see you to your core

  All the curves you throw

  All the edges you display

  All the softness

  For me

  And the girl I see

  Who is simply

  Perfect for me

  Always perfect for me.

  As the last notes died, Boone’s voice carried across the room, and he was on the move, singing as he walked toward Verity and his son,

  A perfect daughter

  Locked into what

  Others saw

  Looking at me

  With eyes full

  Of longing

  Locked up, held down

  Outlaw

  Outcast

  Branded

  I want to touch you

  You strip me bare.

  Hold you

  You break me

  Love you

  You are perfect

  And make you mine

  The girl I see

  I see you to your core

  All the curves you throw

  All the edges you display

  All the softness

  For me

  And the girl I see

  Who is simply

  Perfect for me

  Always perfect for me.

  Reckless, and lost

  I was found

  In your eyes

  In your heart

  I found myself

  In you

  When he reached her, he sang the chorus and escorted her to the stage.

  My heart beat my love for Brax as he stepped up to the microphone and sang:

  A perfect Princess

  With a heart of gold

  Untouchable

  So I thought

  Until you

  Looked at me

  Oh, the way you looked at me

  I went to him and met his eyes, mouthing I love you. When he segued into the refrain, tears rose effortlessly to my eyes, riding on the crest of my emotions.

  Obstacles abound

  Impossibilities mounting

  You found me

  When I was lost

  And you saved me


  Saved me

  I stepped up to the stage and curled my hand around the solid muscle of his biceps, my fingers barely making a dent. He was my past, my present, and my future. Twining together and making the life we wanted together, the way my friends had made theirs. All of us raised our voices in the last chorus, and my heart was full.

  Later on we drove along the bayou road, but instead of going home, Brax pulled off to the side, Booker and Boone pulling in behind us.

  I looked at him and saw enough Outlaw mischief in his eyes to make me very wary. “C’mon, sugar,” he crooned, trying to sound convincing.

  I opened the door and saw Aubree and Verity standing near their respective vehicles. Brax took my hand and pulled me deeper into the bayou. I could smell the water and, as we came around the bend, I saw the air boat.

  I immediately balked. “Brax, no. No way.”

  “Oh, yes, sugar.”

  When I turned to run, I found myself flanked by two sets of identical blue, blue eyes and Outlaw grins. “Aw, where’s your sassiness, River Pearl?” Boone said.

  I backed up right into Brax’s chest, laughing. “Stop it, you jerks.”

  “Yeah, she’s got a racer’s body. All curves,” Booker said, leering at me. “I bet she likes it fast.”

  I heard Aubree and Verity laugh.

  I turned toward them. “Help me.”

  Aubree shook her head. “No can do, Princess. It’s your initiation. Once you become an Outlaw woman, you gotta get on the air boat.”

  “Verity?”

  “Nope. We’ve already been initiated.” She made a sort-of religious gesture, and added, “Go with God.”

  Brax chuckled. “You can start saying your prayers now, sugar.”

  I shook my head, surrounded by three gorgeous, determined rogues who still grinned like the unholy trinity they were.

  “I don’t think even God can help her,” Aubree said, shaking her head with pretend chagrin.

  The Outlaws closed in on me, all that gorgeous, hard-packed muscle times three. I pushed my way free and made a run for it. But I wasn’t fast enough. Brax caught me around the middle, and before I could even take a breath, he threw me over his shoulder.

  “C’mon, sugar. I won’t go faster than the speed limit.”

  I sucked in a breath. “Oh, shit. What did you say?”

  “The speed limit,” Booker said, loping along easily beside Brax, carrying a gigging stick and a burlap bag. Boone had two bags and two more gigs.

  “The trick,” Boone said, “is letting go immediately if you stick a gator. We don’t want to flip the boat.”

  My heart stopped and I squeaked.

  All three of the bastards laughed, Brax’s rumble vibrating against my chest through his thickly-muscled back. When Brax reached the air boat, he stepped on board, totally balanced, probably because of the fighter’s stance he was so used to. He set me into the seat and strapped me in.

  He sat down into the driver’s seat.

  He turned to wiggle his eyebrows at me. “Wanna go for a ride, sugar?”

  “Oh, God,” I said. I took a deep breath and unbuckled the belt. Snatching up a gigging pole and a burlap bag, I gave Brax my best imitation of an Outlaw grin I could muster. “Bring it on, Outlaws!”

  Braxton laughed out loud and fired up the engine. Boone and Booker laughed, too, unholy lights in all three of their gorgeous blue eyes.

  #

  River Pearl

  My rise up from the deep drift of sleep was a languorous affair, a slow winding path from one lovely thought to another, the loose boneless feeling of my body, the soothing awareness of complete well-being. It had been a long, long time since I’d awakened with such a sense of rightness with the world.

  My eyelids fluttered open and I took in my sleeping man, his even breath blowing warm against my skin. Six feet of purely nude, purely male, hot, muscled gorgeousness lying next to me.

  I couldn’t get enough of this. Heat rose off him…Brax was a hottie. Lying close, feeling his warmth and the power that so naturally flowed from his body, feeling the dormant energy in the muscles of his arms as he held me. He’d been the most beautiful boy I had ever seen.

  Now he was the most beautiful man. His features were softened by sleep and the pale light of the gray and rainy morning. His hair was thick and silky, and the color of midnight spread across his pillow and waved tantalizingly across his forehead. Beard stubble darkened his jaw.

  The sheet was pooled low around his hips, revealing his sexy indentation and abs. It was hard to miss how the sheet tented around his groin. A morning erection. Lucky me.

  I seemed to get lucky just about every morning.

  #

  Braxton

  I needed her under me again. Yeah, it was a lazy Sunday morning, with rain streaking down the windows. With the sky all gray and the world quiet, making love was the only thing that made sense.

  Without giving it another thought, I rolled onto my side and snaked my arm around her waist, dragging her across the mattress and under me in one move. She started to say something, but I stole the words with my mouth. There was my golden gasp and my melting Princess. I liked being a knave much better than being a prince.

  My body was crazy for hers. All she had to do was breathe to turn me on. It was so easy to be with her, to be inside her. It was amazing, a languid sensation, a melting into her I’d never experienced with anyone else. I’d certainly never allowed myself to spend the night to wake up on rainy mornings.

  I eased her leg up around my waist, just to feel her surround the whole length of me. There was nothing like it, not on this earth. The slick, heated warmth of her seeped into me, starting at my dick and radiating out to the very furthest reaches of my brain. Fuck, she made it hard to think.

  I opened my mouth wider over hers, pulled her tighter, felt her open to receive me, and I kissed her as if it was for the first time, with the same need to explore, the same wonder, the same newness, like I was discovering her all over again.

  I simply wanted her, wanted all her wet softness, all her golden gasps. I thrust into her as slowly as I could, letting everything she was seep into me.

  “Fuck me, River,” I groaned, dragging my mouth down to her jaw, grazing her with my teeth. “Yeah, so sweet, so, so wet and slick.”

  Her hands were all over me, molding over my chest, lingering on my biceps and then back down over my torso, caressing my skin in rhythm with my thrusts, her fingers moving between my thighs.

  I opened my legs wider and whispered in her ear, then felt her hand slide back around and come up from underneath, cupping my balls, gently kneading me, tugging on me—so lightly, her touch delicate.

  I bit her neck, sucked on her.

  Oh, yeah, perfection.

  It was so sweet, and hot, and healing.

  I covered her mouth again, fusing us together with the same breath.

  River Pearl.

  Model.

  Debutante.

  Beauty Queen.

  Artist.

  Tease.

  Mine.

  #

  River Pearl

  I felt like I had fallen into a bed of fire. My world got so small it almost disappeared. There was only him, the weight of him holding me down, his thrusts making him a part of me, fueling needs, the passion that defined our relationship down to our pores.

  He filled me. He consumed me, not only with his body, but with his pleasure and the sheer power of his desire. His hands were on me, gliding over my skin, holding me strong and sure, leaving no part of me untouched. He was where he wanted to go and he had taken me there.

  It was incredibly beautiful, to feel him inside me, on me, all over me. I slid one hand down his chest, over his smooth, hot skin. I loved the way he felt, all hard, lean muscle moving on top of me, each flex and thrust of his hips pushing him deeper.

  Long minutes flowed into each other, sliding across the day, until I no longer existed outside of him. His heat was mine, infusi
ng every pore. The taste of him was the taste of me. I moved, and he moved with me, as one, until he tightened his arm low around my hips, and pulled my hips tighter against him.

  All movement stopped then, except for the slow slide of his other hand up the middle of my torso and between my breasts, until his hand came to a stop at the base of my throat as he possessed, body and soul.

  His gaze held mine, dark and glittering, as he pulled me even tighter.

  Then he rolled his hips and his erection touched something deep inside me and heat flashed across my skin. Sweat broke out. Oh, God. He rolled again, and a tremor started deep, deep. He felt it. He bit his lip and groaned at the evidence of how he turned me on, his gaze darken. A hot, fierce Outlaw grin curved his lips, then his eyes drifted closed and his head went back. He moved me against him, pumped into me, teeth bared, a low growl rumbling up from his chest, getting me hotter, making me wilder.

  I had him. I had all this, all of it. My legs tightened around him, and with his groan echoing in my ears, I felt the first pulsing jerk of his release, his erection getting even hotter and harder and bigger. Molten heat pooled in my groin, and when he thrust into me again, I was with him, drowning in ecstasy, suffused with pleasure so intense, I felt it in my bones, down to my soul, so full of him, he was a part of me.

  An hour later, I roused from sleep again, even more in love with him.

  He’d fallen back into a sound sleep, and I didn’t want to wake him, so I didn’t touch him—but I looked.

  Looked my fill. The rain had stopped, and the sun was shining through the windows. He’d kicked all the sheets off, leaving himself open to my gaze.

  Then I heard the front door open and, “Hey, huckleberries! Rise and shine. We want pancakes.”

  Brax opened his eyes and groaned. “Geezus. It’s much too early for Boone Outlaw’s shit.”