by Jenny Penn
“You really are a very special woman, and that’s why I need to be honest with you. I want you. I want to make love to you. I want to worship you and adore you all night long. I want to make you scream and beg for more because that’s what I’m good at. Relationships…I’m sorry, I’m just no good at them.”
GD heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head sadly at her before going still and breaking into a smirk. “And right about then, a woman starts thinking she can reform me, but she can’t because I’m hopeless, beautiful. I was built to love only one woman.”
That had to be a line. It just had to be, but that didn’t stop her heart from skipping a beat because he really was that good. He had her wrapped up in his spell, one he’d woven with a warm, honeyed purr. The heated suggestion lacing his words licked over her even as he all but hypnotized her with the slow, sensual roll of his thumb over the palm of her hand as he held it tucked into the heat of his own.
“See, I know,” GD whispered. “I know what to say, what to do, where to stroke, kiss, lick, nick, nibble, and suck to make any woman wet enough to forget that she isn’t that kind of girl. So don’t even bother with giving me the speech because I am not that easy.”
“Well, I am,” Kitty Anne shot back before launching herself across the seat.
GD caught Kitty Anne up in his arms, holding her away from him as he laughed openly in the face of her desperation. “I’m sorry, beautiful, but being special means you get special treatment.”
“Does that mean I don’t get to be tag-teamed?” Kitty Anne shot back, taunting him with the knowledge that she knew his secret. “Because the rumor is Cattlemen never ride a woman alone.”
“Is that the rumor?” GD’s grin didn’t hold an ounce of shame.
“Is it true?”
“Do you want it to be?”
That she did but Kitty Anne wasn’t ready to say it out loud. So, she turned his question back on him. “Do you?”
“Oh, yeah.” There was a wealth of anticipation packed into GD’s slow drawl. He eyed her with a look that made Kitty Anne feel exposed in a way that went deeper than just skin.
“I thought I was special,” Kitty Anne reminded him, unable to mask the husky wantonness thickening in her tone.
“And I’m going to find somebody equally special to help me worship you,” GD assured her.
“Worship me?”
“All night long,” GD vowed. “But not tonight.”
“Not tonight?” She was still lost and confused and that was kind of the point. “Are you sure? Sure you wouldn’t like to come back to my place and help me peel off the rest of this teddy?”
She asked that as she let her coat fall open, flashing just what she was offering at the big man, but damn if his eyes didn’t stay locked on hers. They did start to twinkle, though, reflecting the laughter lurking in his tone.
“Yes—”
“Good!”
“—but I’m not going to,” GD informed her as he reached out to tug her coat closed.
He fisted her lapels in one giant hand and lifted her across the seat with no visible effort, making Kitty Anne go weak and wet at the dominant display of superior strength. He was big, strong, and, apparently, hers.
“Make no mistake,” GD whispered across her lips as he pulled her almost all the way into his lap. “One day we’re going to get to all the dirty thoughts filling your head right now and to all the other fantasies you’ll have come up with by then, but first, you have to pay to play.”
With that he released her, allowing Kitty Anne to rear back as he smirked. “And I don’t take cash, beautiful.”
“And what about me?” she demanded to know. “I’m the one who got arrested.”
“The one who got herself arrested,” GD corrected her, but Kitty Anne wasn’t interested in listening to him.
“And searched!”
“You’re damn near naked. What was there really to search?”
“You don’t want to know,” Kitty Anne snapped, not caring for that memory at all, but it wasn’t the worst. “Neither do you want to end up having to defend yourself against a whole gaggle of pissed-off hookers.”
“Well, that explains the black eye.”
“I’ve paid,” Kitty Anne repeated, keeping her words crisp and succinct. “And you should see the other women.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Kitty Anne blinked, thrown completely off by that response. “What about tomorrow? You going to go check out the other women? Maybe put the cash in your pocket to good use?”
That drew a smile from GD but not an answer as he leaned forward to drop a sweet, chaste kiss on her brow. He leaned back in his seat and repeated himself once again, though this time with a finality that assured her he was telling her to get out.
“Tomorrow.”
Kitty Anne snorted at that and heaved an aggrieved sigh as she reached for the door handle with a mutter. “Yeah. Yeah. Tomorrow. Whatever.”
“And Kitty Anne?” GD called out just as she was about to hop out of the cab.
She paused to glance back at him with a lifted brow that asked the question she didn’t. He didn’t leave her waiting for an answer but offered her a true smile and honest compliment.
“I like your style.”
It was a simple statement, one that paled in comparison to all the other more elaborate and specific ones she’d received in her lifetime, but it was the sweetest one she’d ever heard. It filled her with a strange warmth that was equal parts excitement and contentment.
“Everybody does,” Kitty Anne returned, along with a smile, before she slid out of the cab and strutted up toward her car, knowing he was watching her every step.
* * * *
GD watched the sway of Kitty Anne’s hips as she walked away and grinned. The woman knew how to strut. Hell, the way she’d sauntered into the lobby at the police station, half-naked and full of sass and pride, said it all. The woman carried herself with the regal bearing of a queen.
That was what she was—his queen, and he was going to need a little help keeping her in line. His queen needed two kings, though GD preferred to think of himself as a knight. Knights went into battle with an army. So, what he needed was a general that was worthy of his queen.
He still hadn’t come up with an appropriate candidate. A part of GD wondered if that wasn’t because he really didn’t want to share Kitty Anne. If it wasn’t right then it wouldn’t feel right.
That reminder had GD’s doubts disappearing as he considered that there was no mistaking the volatile mix of lust and want that churned within him. Neither could he deny that he felt a sense of pride that he was the one she’d walked toward, smiled for, and belonged to.
More precisely, he belonged to her.
While that might turn out to be the best spot in the world, GD also sensed it could be a very dangerous one, too, if he didn’t manage to keep up. He considered that as he kept a respectable distance from her bumper, tailing her all the way home. He waited till she’d disappeared into her motel room and remained watching over her door for nearly an hour as he considered just what he was going to have to do.
He didn’t like the idea of leaving her here. Though the place was relatively clean and quiet, it was far from secure by his definition. He’d have to watch over her. That decision made, GD was about ready to check into the room next to hers when his phone rang.
It was Nick.
Nick. He was perfect, a perfect match for Kitty Anne.
“Hey, man, what’s up?”
“I got a problem.”
“Kevin?”
“You know it.” The weight of worry that sounded in Nick’s tone touched GD.
The other man really did care about the kids in his care. He ran a reform school for boys. While most of the kids came out of the foster system abused or broken, Kevin had actually been sent to Nick’s camp by the local sheriff right around the time a barn had been set on fire out at the Davis ranch.
It had been ki
nd of obvious, given the kid had been carrying a gas can, just who set the fire. Unlike the rest of the boys at the camp, though, Kevin came with family. Specifically, an older brother, who had stepped in almost immediately to take full blame for anything that Kevin did. He’d also demanded a lawyer for the kid.
It had been clear then that Seth, Kevin’s brother, wasn’t letting the kid go down for the fire. He’d take that fall for him. Without any real evidence beyond a gas can, the sheriff hadn’t had enough to arrest the kid. Now if he found out Kevin was making a habit of going back to the Davis ranch, he might change his mind.
“I’m headed to the ranch now.” GD pulled out of the parking spot and out onto the highway, heading straight for the Davis brothers’ ranch.
“Thanks, man.”
Nick kept it simple. There really wasn’t much else to say, not between them. They were tight enough to know everything that was left unsaid, like the fact that Nick was, undoubtedly, panicking despite his calm tone. Those boys out at the camp meant everything to the man.
The future wasn’t going to be easy for most of them, but Kevin actually had a chance at something the rest of them didn’t have, a family. He already had a brother. He could have a sister if only Seth or Kevin would admit to what was clearly obvious—they were related to Patton Jones.
Patton’s mom had run off a long time ago. From all the background work GD had done with the help of the sheriff, he knew for a fact she’d gone on to have two more kids before the demons in her head finally claimed her life. Now all the two brothers had left were their sister, but neither Seth nor Kevin appeared willing to make any effort to claim her.
GD suspected Seth feared she’d fight for custody for his brother and he’d lose Kevin. What Kevin feared probably had something to do with the gas can. The only thing to do was to come clean. That was just what GD and Nick were trying to convince the kid to do.
They hadn’t gotten very far.
Turning off the highway into a grassy field, GD cut across the pasture as he came up behind the Davis ranch. He didn’t get too close. Instead, he killed his lights and left his truck far enough away that no one up at the main house or in the barracks would be able to spot him coming. This wasn’t the first time he’d snuck onto the Davis brothers’ property.
GD doubted it would be his last either, but there wasn’t any need for the brothers to know about their late night visitors. After all, Kevin wasn’t causing any damage this time. He was just sitting up in the new hay barn’s loft, staring down at the house below and simmering with a sadness GD just didn’t get.
He didn’t have to understand. All he had to do was accept and try to help Kevin find a way to let go of it all. That wouldn’t be happening tonight, but who knew? It might be a start.
That was the kind of optimism that GD knew caused other people to snicker at him, but he didn’t care. He preferred to live in a world of hope. On the positive side, sometimes he had to spy on his friends making asses out of themselves, like the first time he’d tracked Kevin to the barn loft.
The kid had been watching Patton and the brothers play some damn game on the TV, which had Chase Davis dancing around like an ass. GD snickered as he savored the memory of the sight of his old friend actually relaxed and having fun.
Chase wasn’t normally that at ease. He tended to be more pensive, kind of like the kid GD found hiding in the barn loft. Finally reaching the top rung of the ladder, GD didn’t bother to offer Kevin a greeting as he crawled across the loft to settle down next to the kid. Kevin didn’t bother to offer him one either. Instead, they sat there staring at the dark house until finally the kid broke down and spoke.
“They’re not home. I was hoping they’d come back,” Kevin stated simply, as if that explained everything.
It did, but the kid had it wrong. Patton and her men were home. GD suspected they were in the special room the brothers had built out behind Patton’s studio, making sure she atoned for her sins that night. Of course the Davis brothers could discipline their woman all they wanted.
Patton would never settle down.
“I was hoping to see her again.”
There was a heavy wistfulness buried in those words, leaving no doubt about what the kid wanted, but GD suspected he’d been long trained not to reach for any dream. That was a habit that would not serve Kevin well.
“She is happy,” GD finally agreed. “And knowing Patton, she’d be thrilled to have a little brother to spoil.”
Spoil and corrupt, not that Kevin needed the help. He was good at getting into trouble all on his own. It was almost unnerving to think of the two of them together.
“Nick sent you, didn’t he?” Kevin asked, as usual refusing to respond to GD’s encouragement.
“You ran out on him again, made him worry.”
“I know.” Kevin sighed and shifted, finally glancing over at GD to cast his big, doe-eyes up at him. “I just…”
“Wanted to see her again,” GD filled in for him before reminding him of the offer GD had made the kid the first time they’d met. “You know there is a way you can do that. I could introduce you.”
“No.” Kevin shook his head. Just as he had every time, the kid turned GD down flat. “I don’t want to meet her.”
“Then why are you here?”
The kid didn’t have an answer for that, but he did agree to leave with GD. They had to stop by and pick up the dirt bike he’d ridden all the way from the camp to the ranch. Kevin had left it in some brush not far from where GD had left his truck, proving that he had a knack for subterfuge, or, at least, that was what GD told him.
That broke Kevin out of his shell as he showed interest, once again, in GD’s job. Despite whatever troubled past the boy might have, GD sensed that he might nevertheless end up becoming a cop one day, or possibly going into the military. Though the kid insisted he’d rather follow Seth and learn to fix cars. That was, at least, until GD pointed out that he could be fixing tanks or airplanes and who knew…maybe he’d even get to fly or drive one.
That suggestion put a gleam into Kevin’s eyes that left GD comforted that he’d finally said the right thing, but the kid’s mirth didn’t last any longer than it took to reach the camp.
“You think Mr. Dickles’s going to be mad?” Kevin cut into GD’s thoughts with that quiet question as GD finally turned his truck into the parking lot that bordered the Camp D’s dorms.
A refuge for boys without any other means, the camp was a self-contained community that housed nearly three hundred boys and over a dozen men, who were tasked with helping them with everything from getting their aggressions out with hard-core physical activity to helping them not only with their homework but with applying what they learned.
The camp was like a family and at the head was the father figure—Nick Dickles. He was standing there with his arms crossed and scowl darkening his brow, glaring into the headlights as GD pulled the truck up to the curb.
“Well, he doesn’t look too happy, does he?” GD noted as he eased the truck toward the large man glaring into his headlights.
“He looks worried.” Kevin frowned, and GD couldn’t help but notice that that thought seemed to upset him more than the idea that Nick might be mad.
“I told you he was.” GD pulled the truck to a stop and turned to give Kevin a pointed look. “You know people worry about things they care about.”
He might only be eleven years old, but Kevin was wise enough to catch GD’s meaning. The kid shot him a curt nod and hopped out of the cab. GD was slower to follow, giving Nick time to have a private word with the boy before he sent him racing up the path to the young man waiting for him at the head.
GD watched Kevin pause to have a word with Seth before the two turned to head back into the dorm. Seth glanced back at Nick, who stood there watching the boys disappear inside the large, brick building.
“That kid…” Nick sighed as he seemed at a loss for words. He settled on a cliché that had all too often been used on Nick hims
elf. “He’s something else.”
“He’s got a set on him to keep going back there like that,” GD agreed as he slammed his door closed and stepped up onto the cobblestoned sidewalk that helped lend a fantastical air to the grounds. “But ,one day, one of the Davis boys is going to catch him and then…”
“Then what?” Nick demanded to know. “Everybody keeps saying, ‘and then,’ but I don’t know what you all think is going to happen. I know the Davis brothers. They aren’t going to hurt a kid.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know Patton.”
“Actually, I remember her. Cute girl. Unfortunate name, and jealous as hell of the brothers, but it shouldn’t matter if I know the girl or not. I would have thought that, given their reputations, the Davis boys would know how to manage one little woman.”
“First off, she’s not little anymore,” GD corrected, holding out one finger and then another as he clicked off his points. “Second off, there are some women you don’t manage. Some women who are as wild as the wind and you just pray to God that you can hold on.”
That comment had Nick giving him a hard look. “We’re not talking about Patton any more, are we?”
“I found us a goddess,” GD admitted, earning a groan from Nick, but he ignored his old friend’s dramatic response to step past him, heading toward the path that led up the hill to where Nick had built himself a small bungalow on a chunk of spare land. It wasn’t technically on school grounds and was where Nick kept his liquor.
“Come on. You can toast my good luck, and I’ll tell you about the Venus that’s got me hooked.”
“You do realize that Venus is a mythical creature, right?”
Chapter Four
Friday, May 30th
Nick crossed the camp’s grounds, cutting through the massive vegetable gardens on his way toward the workshops and garages out back. He swept a critical eye over the tailored beds, making mental notes of what needed to be done. May was a crucial month in the tender development of many of their summer crops.