by Ever Wood
“Oh, really? I still haven’t had my blind date with Doug,” I remind him.
“And, you never will. I took care of that.”
How was he able to send both Jase and Doug away and take their places? Especially when he wasn’t even on my list? There is more to Dr. Rand than he has let on. Time to probe a little more.
“Do you make your living here at The Ranch exclusively? Or do you have a practice elsewhere?”
His face flushes and he suddenly looks like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Yes, I do make a living here at The Ranch, Tesh. As one of the physicians on staff, and…as the owner.”
The Selection
I bring the bright red lipstick to my mouth and carefully apply it to the top of my upper lip. Slowly, I draw it down one side and then the other. I sweep it across the bottom lip last. The red is striking against my pale skin and black hair, and I hardly recognize the glamorous creature staring back at me in the mirror.
I stand and smile. The red silk gown I wear hugs my body in all the right places, and I can’t wait for Brett to see me in it.
There is only one other woman left in the Parlor with me. Camryn left what seems like eons ago to claim Adam Steele and I could not be happier for my friend. For both of us.
My boyfriend is a freaking multi-millionaire. It’s hard to wrap my mind around that concept and how it could potentially change my life if things work out between us. Money has never been important to me personally, only in what I can do with it to make this world a little better place. It’s not a liberal thing, it’s a practical thing. We’re only here for a short period of time. Why hoard money that you don’t need if it can be life changing to many others. Fortunately, Brett and I share this philanthropic view and I love him for it.
A knock sounds outside of the Parlor and I stand to answer it.
It’s Doug.
“Holy shit, Tesh, you look fucking gorgeous!”
I laugh out loud. “Thank you.”
He shakes his head ruefully. “It kills me to step aside, Tesh, but he’s the boss man, what can I say?”
“I know.” I place both hands on his cheeks and drag his face toward mine to give him a chaste kiss. “I hope you find your girl soon, Doug. I mean it.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that I will, although I still say it would have been fun to teach you to surf,” he says, pressing in close.
“Out, Mr. Banks.”
We both pull back to see Sophia at the door to the Parlor.
Doug holds his hands up. “I’m going, I’m going.” He walks to the door, and I can’t help but giggle when he leans in toward Sophia and asks her if she enjoys water sports.
She gives him a good-natured swat and sends him on his way.
“It’s time,” she tells me and the other woman.
We both move toward the door, but Sophia stops me with a warm smile. “I am so happy for you, Tesh. My brother is an amazing man and I hope the two of you will be very happy together.”
Something has bothered me since Brett’s grotto confession. “Sophia, if Brett owns this place, why hasn’t he ever participated to meet a woman before?”
“He devotes himself entirely to his humanitarian pursuits and his responsibilities here at The Ranch. But,” she seems hesitant to reveal too much, but I prod her along with my eyes and she relents. “He did have a serious girlfriend three years ago, but unfortunately it didn’t work out.”
Oh, my poor Brett. “Why?”
She shakes her head. “It is his story to tell when he’s ready.”
“I understand.”
She grabs my hand. “Come.”
When we get to the doors to the Great Room, I stand behind the other woman nervously.
“Good luck,” Sophia whispers and vanishes.
The doors finally open and the woman ahead of me is announced.
I get my first peek into the ceremonial room and gasp. Overnight, the room has been transformed into a white wonderland with a white carpet and white walls. Crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling lending their soft light to the diffuse glow of hundreds of candles.
It’s a fairytale I think again and not just because of the beautiful room made for a princess. It’s because of the man standing just inside. My prince. Brett is there on the other side of the room waiting for me, and I want to cry at the beauty of him. I want to run to him, throw myself into his arms, and claim him as mine. All mine. But, the woman is announced and the doors close before I’m able to do any of these things.
Soon, I think with a smile. My turn is next.
“Tesh!”
I glance to the side.
Jase is standing in the shadows of an alcove under the stairs to the upper levels.
I panic. Before I can make a run for it, he rushes me, grabs me around the neck and presses a handkerchief over my nose and mouth. I kick backward and connect with his shin. He curses, but it’s all I can do before darkness creeps in at the edges of my vision and I slump into his arms.
Revenge
I jerk awake because of the pain. Moving hurts, thinking hurts. My head feels like it weighs a thousand pounds and I can’t open my eyes no matter how hard I try. Wait. I’m blindfolded! I can feel the fabric pressing tight around my temples. I move to yank it off, but cry out when I realize my hands are restrained in some way out to the sides. Sharp metal cuts into my wrists when I try to pull them toward me.
My legs are also shackled at the ankles, and I realize I’m lying spread-eagle on someone’s bed.
Jase. He did this. But, I still don’t know why.
Oh, Brett. In my mind’s eye, I still see him standing in the Great Room with a smile on his face. Then, the doors closed and Jase appeared. That’s all I remember.
Everything is silent in the room and I’m terrified. All my senses are alert as I lie vulnerable and exposed. I strain for any trace of sound that will tell me what is happening outside of my sightless world.
Many minutes go by. I start to cry, but the blindfold prevents my tears from falling down my face. I wonder if Camryn knows that I’m missing. Is anyone looking for me? Am I still on Brett’s private island?
A cold hand cups my breast.
The contact startles me and I whimper. “Jase?” I ask softly.
My kidnapper does not say anything, but I can tell it is a man by the smell of his cologne and a touch of sweat. He continues to caress my breasts with faint touches. The bed sinks down as he sits next to me. His mouth fastens over my areola, and he suckles and pulls at my nipple with his teeth.
I feel so helpless. This man can do anything he wants to my body and there is not a damn thing I can do. Tears threaten again, but I check them. I can survive this. I have to.
He gets up from the bed and despite my vow, I panic, wondering what he’s going to do next.
I hear a mechanical cranking sound a second before my legs are slowly pulled back along the edges of the bed. The movement bends my knees until I’m displayed even more.
I know begging won’t help, but I do it anyway. “Jase, please don’t.”
I hear his footfalls as he comes back to the bed. He sits down between my legs.
No!
A finger touches the inside of my leg at my knee and trails down my inner thigh. First one leg and then the other. He’s getting perverse pleasure from toying with me. The finger disappears and I feel a soft tickle at the opening of my sex. I hear his ragged breathing as he slowly pushes inside of me.
My body responds and drips with wetness as he dips in and out. I squirm beneath his assault, not in pleasure but in humiliation. I want him off me, out of me.
I can’t take anymore. “Why are you doing this?” I try to sound harsh, authoritative, but it comes out more as a terrified pant.
“Because I can.”
I gasp in surprise that he answered me.
He withdraws his finger and stands. He comes around to the top of the bed and pulls the blindfold from my eyes.
I look u
p at Jase. He’s wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else. His muscled chest and abs gleam in the soft light of a bedroom lamp.
“That’s not an answer,” I tell him.
He doesn’t say anything for several minutes. “Would you like the truth, Tesh?”
I nod.
“Because I want to destroy Brett Rand. I want to crush any spark of happiness he ever hopes to achieve in this life. Do you like that answer better, Tesh?”
“Jase, don’t do this,” I beg.
“Do what? You’re at the infamous Gentlemen’s Ranch! Isn’t this what you came for? I read your profile, Tesh. You like being tied up, you little slut. Isn’t that what you wrote?”
I shake my head. “Not like this.”
“I can see why he likes you,” he murmurs and reaches down to bounce one of my breasts in his hand.
“Jase…”
He walks away and I can’t see what he’s doing.
“I’m sorry it had to come to this, Tesh, I really am. If Brett had just stayed the fuck away, you and I could have had something together.”
He’s insane. He’s fucking insane. “What are you going to do to me?”
He comes back to the bed and smiles, but his blue eyes look dead to me. As though in making his decision to take me, it stripped away any vestige of humanity he possessed. “Unfortunately, Tesh, in order for Brett to suffer, you must suffer.”
It is then that I notice the black whip in his hand.
Dread fills my entire body and I scream. Jase jumps on the bed and straddles my body. He shoves something into my mouth, cutting off my scream. It’s a leather gag with a ball in the center and he fastens it tightly at the back of my head.
I feel like I can’t breathe and start to panic. My chest heaves as I struggle to get air into my lungs.
“Calm down!” Jase snaps and slaps me in the face. “Breathe through your fucking nose.”
I do as he says, but it takes several minutes before my breathing evens out.
He stalks to the end of the bed and without warning flicks the whip out toward me. The end bites into my stomach and I buck off the bed. I feel liquid seep down my side and realize it’s blood.
Another strike hits one of my breasts.
I moan in pain.
A third lashes the other.
I squeeze my eyes shut against the unbearable burning throb. I’m sobbing now. When I open my eyes again, the whip is gone and Jase’s hands move to the zipper of his jeans.
No! I shake my head violently, but he simply laughs and pulls his pants down until his erection leaps free. He steps out of his jeans and kicks them away.
The bed shifts as he climbs over me, between my outstretched knees.
No!
“This one’s for you, Brett.”
“The hell it is, you mother fucker.”
Brett!
Brett grabs Jase around the neck and slams him to the floor. I can’t see what’s happening, but I hear grunts and a fist striking flesh. Repeatedly. A few minutes later, Brett stands and looks down at me.
“Oh, Tesh.” He looks at the contraption holding my legs apart and then searches the room frantically. He finds a set of keys on the nightstand and rushes to release me. When my arms and legs are free, he sits by my head with a look of disgust and unfastens the gag. “Bastard.”
He pulls me close and I melt into the safety of his arms. “I’m so sorry, Tesh. This is all my fault. I never should have let him come back to The Ranch.”
“Come back?” I ask in confusion. “He’s been here before? What is he to you?”
Brett stands and stares down at the unconscious man. “He’s my brother.”
Revelations
Hours later, I snuggle with Brett in his lavish suite on the third floor. All the guests were asked to leave early and the police were called. Camryn didn’t want to go without me, but I insisted so she could spend time with Adam. Brett assured her he would personally see me home safely.
I turn in his arms and look up at him. It surprises me how protected he makes me feel. Then again, he did save me twice now. I guess it’s only natural. “Tell me all of it.”
He swallows and looks up at the ceiling. “You sure you want to hear it?”
“Yes.” I want to know everything about you.
“I’m afraid you’ll leave me.”
“I won’t.”
He licks his lips and starts to relate his story. “Jase is my stepbrother. I was ten and Sophia twelve when our mother died. Father remarried Jase’s mother three years later. Even though I tried to befriend this new brother who had come into our lives, he was always insanely jealous of me. Jealous of the time my father spent teaching me and Sophia the business aspects of running The Ranch.” Brett idly traces my ear and I lay back down on his chest. “He would do little things at first. Damage my belongings, make up lies about me, steal my girlfriends. I realized just how bad things were when he killed my dog.”
I tense beneath him. “That’s terrible, Brett.”
“Yeah,” he murmurs. “Anyway, we separated when we both went off to college. We would get together through the years at the holidays, but he never tried to hide his contempt for me. Three years ago, everything came to a head. He begged to work at The Ranch, but I refused because I knew his real feelings for me and I didn’t want to deal with that kind of negativity in my life. Eventually, though, I agreed to let him participate as one of the bachelors. It was a terrible mistake letting him near me. He ended up hurting a woman pretty badly. Someone I was close to. I kicked him out then and told him he was not welcome back.”
I shudder as I think what Jase may have done to me if Brett had not shown up. Then, I remember what Sophia told me. “The woman he hurt. It was your girlfriend, wasn’t it?”
He seems surprised that I know, but answers. “Yes, she was. That’s why I feel so guilty, Tesh. My stepmother pleaded with me to give him this second chance and you suffered for it. It’s all my fault. I knew what he was capable of and never should have let him come back.” He tilts my chin up to look in my eyes. “If you can’t forgive me, I will understand.”
“It’s not your fault, Brett. Jase is responsible for his own action. Don’t take ownership for the sins of others.”
“But—”
“It’s over. Let’s forget about Jase and put this behind us.”
Green eyes study my face. “Can you? Can you really forget?”
I smile. “I really can. I refuse to let a monster have any influence over me or my life. I see nothing but an amazing future ahead of me.”
Brett makes a really sexy sound in his throat and then kisses me. Long and hard. Like he never wants to let me go.
I pull back. “Make love to me. Not as Dr. Rand or one of the bachelors. Just Brett.”
He growls and rolls on top of me. “Oh, you have no idea what is in store for you, Ms. Morgan.”
“Wait!”
His eyebrow lifts in question.
“Do me a favor and put your glasses on.”
The End
(For Now)
Afterword
Thank you so much for reading The Gentlemen’s Ranch. I cannot stress enough how priceless your feedback is to me as an independent author. Let me hear from you. Either with a review where you purchased this story or at the email address below. Would you like to read more Tesh & Brett? More escapades at The Gentlemen’s Ranch? More Bear Twins? (Okay, just a little jest there).
Whatever your desires, my keyboard is yours to command. ;)
Until we meet again,
Ever Wood
[email protected]
Continue Now with The Gentlemen’s Ranch (Slave Week) – Book Two
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