by Tara Sue Me
“No you won’t,” she said with the first real smile he’d seen in days.
“You’re right.” She knew him too well. “Can we at least pretend I will so you can get your son without having to worry about his uncle and whether he’s kept from burning his office down while you’re gone?”
She walked over to him, stood on her toes, and kissed his cheek. “I suppose so. Thank you.”
“Take care of my nephew,” he said. “Tell him I’m going to check the creek bed this afternoon and if he’s feeling better this weekend, we can go together and look for fossils.”
“He’ll love that, I’ll be sure to tell him.”
He watched her get into her car and leave. What he wouldn’t give to know where his worthless brother-in-law was hiding. That ass had some kind of nerve to leave his wife and son without a word. If he valued his balls at all, he’d stay the hell away from Jed. He wasn’t certain he’d be able to listen to any excuse the man might have before breaking the asshole’s nose.
Three hours later, Jed considered closing his office for the rest of the day. Before hiring Jessica to work his front office, he’d done the work himself. In the short months since she’d taken over, he’d forgotten how much he hated the paperwork associated with the ranch.
He didn’t feel bad shutting down earlier than normal. He’d taken care of all the items Jessica had outstanding, called to check on Caleb, and told his sister to let him know if she needed tomorrow off as well. Then, because he had some time, he placed orders and paid a few bills so she wouldn’t have so much to come back to when Caleb felt better.
Before heading out of the office for good, he wanted to check the latest feeds from his security cameras. There had been no recent sightings of the mysterious tracks his staff noticed weeks ago, but he’d kept the cameras running, anyway. He wasn’t sure why, just a feeling in his gut.
Whenever anyone had mentioned a gut feeling in the past, he’d thought they made it up. Now he wasn’t so sure. Thus far the cameras had caught nothing, but he couldn’t find peace about pulling them down yet.
He locked the main door, not that he expected anyone, but it was always when you neglected to do those little things that shit happened. His ranch didn’t have near the security concerns that Orson faced. While the neighboring ranch employed an entire security team, Jed got by with his ranch hands monitoring things and the cameras.
The only security issue his property ever had before were people wanting to explore the many caves found on a far end of his land. Eventually, he wanted to set up that particular area to accommodate the interest. Like everything else, though, it took time, patience, money, and a hell of a lot of government hoops and red tape.
Jed logged into his computer and into the program to view the feeds. It had been a few days since he’d last looked. Slack of him, yes, but there had been misplaced feed, a handful of sick stock he’d had to call the vet over for, and trying to arrange legal counsel for Jessica. Honesty, viewing video feeds showing nothing but his own property hadn’t been on his list of important things to take care of.
Looking at the video had became routine. He could do it in his sleep or train one of his guard dogs to complete the task. In other words, he was complacent.
Which was why it took as long as it did for him to notice the person on the video who shouldn’t have been there. Seeing something or someone dart across the screen, he shot up from his seat.
Fuck!
He went back to watch it in further detail. The camera in question was one of the many filming the cave area. Of course it was. Why would he think anything would happen anywhere else? He pulled the cameras from that area and settled in to watch his property’s hot spot.
By the time he’d finished going through everything recorded so far, he didn't know what to think. Not once did he see any sort of vehicle. Which meant either the person currently on his property wasn’t related to the tracks from earlier or that they were connected and the person had evaded being captured on any of his cameras until now. The second didn’t seem likely, but it wasn’t impossible, so he couldn’t write it off.
At the moment, his main questions were, who they were, and what did they want? Looking at the shadowy images, he guessed they were a youngish boy or a woman, not a grown man. They only appeared on video for the last two days. With the little bit of information he pieced together, they spent most of their time in the cave, coming outside only a few times a day, early morning and late night.
Unless it was hidden somewhere he couldn't see, they didn’t travel with many items. Nor did they appear to do much of anything other than spend most of the day and night in the caves.
When he fit all those pieces together as best he could, the scenario making the most sense was this person was likely running from something or someone. And that could point to a situation ranging from someone running from an abusive relationship or a person running from the law. Neither of those situations sounded like anything cared to get involved with.
With a sigh, he downloaded everything into his personal folder. He’d look at all the video footage again once he got back to his house. Perhaps there was a second or two of the person he’d overlooked that would be clearer and maybe give a better sign of what he could potentially be facing.
He stood up, and as he did, noticed all the feeds were currently live. Out of the corner of his eye, he sensed an odd movement on one camera. Pulling that one up on the screen so it was the only one showing, he confirmed the movement.
Not only that, but his uninvited guest caused the movement. Jed glanced at his watch, noting it wasn’t their typical time for an outing. Or at least it wasn’t the pattern they’d had for the last few days. Perhaps they were growing bolder since they hadn’t been confronted about their trespassing.
He watched as the stranger looked in all directions, as if ensuring they were undetected. They clearly didn't realize there were cameras about because Jed recognized the moment they spotted the one closest to them. Odd, they had noticed none of them before. After all, it wasn’t as if Jed hid them.
Jed expected them to run off, or maybe to pick up a rock and throw it at the camera. They shocked him by tilting their head and walking closer. As they neared the camera, the grainy distortion cleared, and the person’s features came into view.
Jed’s heart stopped and then pounded. It wasn’t a stranger hiding out in his caves, nor was it a young boy. It was a woman from his past.
And she was the very reason he’d ran away from the scene with Kiara.
Read Evan and Kelly’s story!
TOP TROUBLE
Out Now
Top Trouble
Chapter One
Until tonight, Evan Martin had never felt jealous of a submissive. But watching the man across the room kneel at Kelly Bowman’s feet and seeing the way she talked to him, her hand in his hair, and her lips brushing the skin along his ear… Well, it had him thinking things he’d never admit to anyone.
He took a step away from the wall he’d been leaning against to shift his feet and calm his dick down.
“Looks like Mistress K has herself a playmate for the evening.”
Evan looked up and found Daniel, one of the group’s long term Doms, watching the curvy redhead.
“Yeah,” Evan said. “He’s played with her before. He knows what he’s getting into.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
“Not that I keep track of who she plays with or anything,” Evan hurried to add, even though he did. She hadn’t played with anyone the last two times the group met here at their new club. It had been six months since she played with the sub she was talking to at the moment.
Daniel obviously overlooked his bald-faced lie. “She brings so much to the group, even apart from being our only Senior Domme. She’ll be missed.”
Evan’s head spun back to Daniel so fast he was surprised he didn’t give himself whiplash. “What? What do you mean, missed?”
Daniel cringed. “I didn�
�t realize you hadn’t heard. She took a job in Texas. With the Dallas PD.”
Kelly was moving? To Dallas?
“No,” Evan replied, trying to sound as normal as possible. “I hadn’t heard that. I wish her all the best.” He couldn’t imagine her not being in Delaware. Not being part of the group. “When’s she moving?”
“A month, I think.” Daniel wrinkled his brow. “Julie wants to throw her a party, but she’s too busy with wedding stuff.”
Daniel and his submissive, Julie, were getting married in three months. Evan nodded but said nothing. He found that he couldn’t. Daniel looked at him as if expecting him to be a smartass about Kelly moving, her potential party, or both. But the snark wouldn’t come. In its place was something else. Evan couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it felt an awful lot like regret.
He felt a sudden need to get away from Daniel. The senior Dominant was too observant, and he’d known Evan for too long. He’d keep talking about Kelly, and if Evan didn’t watch himself, he’d end up confessing his attraction to her.
He wasn’t sure why it mattered. So what if he found the Domme attractive? She was every man’s fantasy: hot body, fiery red hair, plus she was a hard as nails cop who busted balls for a living. Who wouldn’t find her attractive was the real question.
Probably, it was because they were both Tops. A relationship between the two of them would never work. Over the years, it became easier to pick fights with her than to confess he was attracted to her. Not to mention, pushing her buttons was so damn fun.
The sound of giggling caught his attention, and he glanced at the sitting area to his left. A group of unattached submissives had their heads together, whispering about something. He moved toward a vacant chair next to them.
Maybe he’d try to find someone to play with. That would force him to focus on something else. And that would be a good thing, because at the moment, Kelly Bowman filled all the space in his head.
About the Author
NEW YORK TIMES/USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
Even though she graduated with a degree in science, Tara knew she’d never be happy doing anything other than writing. Specifically, writing love stories.
She started with a racy BDSM story and found she was not quite prepared for the unforeseen impact it would have. Nonetheless, she continued and The Submissive Series novels would go on to be both New York Times and USA Today Bestsellers. One of those, THE MASTER, was a 2017 RITA finalist for Best Erotic Romance. Well over one million copies of her books have been sold worldwide.
TARA’S WEBSITE
Also by Tara Sue Me
THE SUBMISSIVE SERIES
THE SUBMISSIVE
THE DOMINANT
THE TRAINING
THE CHALET (novella)
SEDUCED BY FIRE
THE ENTICEMENT
THE COLLAR
THE EXHIBITIONIST
THE MASTER
THE CLAIMING (novella)
THE EXPOSURE
THE FLIRTATION
MENTOR’S MATCH
THE MENTOR & THE MASTER (novella)
TOP TROUBLE
BUCKED (2/27/2020)
WALL STREET ROYALS
FOK
BIG SWINGING D
LESSONS FROM THE RACK
MASTER PROFESSOR
HEADMASTER
THE DATE DUET
THE DATE DARE
THE DATE DEAL
BACHELOR INTERNATIONAL
AMERICAN ASSHOLE
OTHER
HER LAST HELLO
Writing as Tara Thomas (Romantic Suspense)
SONS OF BROAD
SHATTERED FEAR (novella)
HIDDEN FATE (novella)
TWISTED END (novella)
DARKEST NIGHT
DEADLY SECRET
BROKEN PROMISE