Desert of the Damned (18 page)

“Right. Good night then.” Damn, he hadn’t meant to sound short with her. How was he going to avoid talking about the significance of the mountain lion skin without scaring her?

“Good night, Jake.” She went inside her house and closed the door.

97

Kathy Kulig

Chapter Eleven

Amy leaned against her front door, hung her head and groaned. Crap. Why did she have to mention the animal skin? Obviously it was a sore spot between him and his grandfather and here she was urging him to talk about it at their next meeting. He’ll think she was a nosy, prying woman with no sensitivity.

His Jeep pulled out of her driveway and the roar of his engine disappeared up the road. Her stomach gave a little flutter. Only gone a few minutes and already she was missing him like a teenager pining for a new beau. Wasn’t it a little soon to get hung up on a new guy with Dante barely out of the picture?

Already Jake had begun to fill a void that Dante couldn’t or had no desire to fill by asking about her family and interests. In the eight months that she’d known Dante, he’d never asked if she had brothers or sisters, if it was hard for her to move from Florida, or what she liked or didn’t like about Arizona and Florida. Jake had asked her all these things in one night and they weren’t on a date—not really a date. A new client was taking her out for dinner and had been kind enough to show her the Texas Two-Step.

Squeezing her arms around her waist, she blew out an exasperated breath. She liked dancing with him, liked the feel of him. It felt so good having him hold her. If she had held his gaze a little bit longer would he have kissed her? Yeah, right, she was sounding like a kid with a bad crush. And she was traveling down a road that would lead nowhere once she got a job offer in Florida. Jake wouldn’t follow her to Florida.

He’d lived here all his life and he had his grandfather to take care of. If there was something between her and Jake, something more than a business relationship as she sensed there was, she would have to guard her feeling from getting too serious and be upfront with him too.

Without turning on her living room light, she strode into her kitchen, tossed her purse and keys on the baker’s rack and flipped on the small light above her stove.

A scratching sound made her jump. She spun around, pulse pounding and then realized it was Sienna in her cardboard box. Running a hand through her hair, she took a deep breath and willed her heartbeat to slow down, then picked up the tea kettle and filled it at her sink for tea. She placed it on the stove to heat and checked on her cat. The heating pad placed under the crate was keeping the inside of Sienna’s home nice and cozy warm.

Sienna mewed and clawed inside her box. “All right already, I’ll feed you in a minute.” Amy replaced the soiled paper with fresh then filled the syringe with the formula she’d bought from the pet store. Sitting on the floor, she held the cat in her palm while gently squirting the measured syringe of milk into the kitten’s eager mouth.

Sienna took it easily without drawing blood. Amazing.

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Desert of the Damned

After Sienna was full, Amy put her back in her box and watched as she curled up in a ball and went right to sleep. Hard to believe that tiny fluffball had terrorized her and nearly clawed her to death just yesterday.
Don’t get attached to her because you’re not
moving her to Florida.

She poured hot water over the tea bag in her earthenware mug to steep and went into her bedroom to change. The hardwood floor was cool on her bare feet and the room was chilly but when she’d moved eight months ago she hadn’t bought herself anything warmer to sleep in because she didn’t think she would be in Arizona that long. Who would’ve thought the desert nights would be so cold? Digging into her dresser drawer, she reminded herself to do laundry the next day and pulled out a sleeveless silk nightshirt that came mid-thigh and slipped it on. Shivering with goose bumps covering her skin and nipples hard, she yanked the Indian blanket off her bed—

tried not to think it was a gift from Dante—and wrapped herself in it. The she strode back out into the kitchen for her tea.

She dunked the chamomile tea bag several times in the steaming mug of water, then added a teaspoon of honey. Holding the cup in one hand, she grasped the blanket tightly around her with the other. Sleep wouldn’t come easily tonight. Thoughts of Jake and Dante bounced around her head. Throw in her job and plans to move to Florida and she had a circus juggler attempting to keep all those images aloft in her mind at one time. Instead, they ricocheted, collided and rolled around inside. No way was she getting any sleep tonight.

For the first time the thought of moving back to Florida didn’t fill her with excitement or longing as it had in the past. She hadn’t heard from any of her friends in months. By now she’d be as much a stranger there as she was here. As the months passed, and the emails and phone calls from her friends stopped, she wondered what made friendships last.

She noticed the message light on her phone was blinking. Her heart lifted a bit.

Maybe her friends from Florida did call her after all. Pressing the button, she dropped onto the sofa and listened to the messages as she sipped her tea. Her mother’s voice came across the first message. Her mother wished her happy birthday and told Amy about her brother’s two boys, bragging about how well they were doing in school. She also asked how the job hunting was going and if she thought she’d be back in Florida by the fall.

The next call was from Truly, apologizing for missing her birthday. She was still at her mother’s house but wanted to go out to celebrate Amy’s birthday when she returned. She had done something special for her today, a little magic to heat up her love life. Just a little ritual, very positive but she didn’t elaborate. Amy curled her feet under her and smiled, shaking her head. Truly would have to explain about what she meant by “something special”. Truly had danced naked in the desert on the full moon, it was her little ritual to draw in new love in her life. Amy wondered if that had been successful.

99

Kathy Kulig

The third and last call was from Dante. She closed her eyes, preparing for the message. A wave of foreboding weighed her down for two reasons—the last call meant no friend had called her from Florida and she didn’t feel like hearing what Dante had to say. She was about to get up and turn off the machine but decided she’d better hear him out. She expected to hear Dante complain and try to manipulate her somehow. He only asked where she was. Why wasn’t she answering her cell phone and maybe they should talk. “I thought you enjoyed our sex games by the bonfire,” his voice stiffly said. “I thought I always satisfied you. I tried to make it exciting. You said you didn’t want anything serious.”

She blinked and stared at the phone in disbelief. He was the one who’d said he didn’t want a serious relationship. She’d agreed to it because in the back of her mind, she wasn’t going to live there for long. Now he was trying to turn it around as if it was always her idea.

“If you met someone else, I understand,” the message continued. “Give me a call or I’ll see you at work.” The message ended.

Closing her eyes, she dropped her head back against the sofa. Damn, she would have to face him again. True, she was finding herself attracted to Jake but that wasn’t the reason she was ending her relationship with Dante. Dante was creeping her out.

How he’d managed it get her outside with his hypnosis, she didn’t know. And their sex life was beginning to feel shallow and empty.

Sex for the sake of sexual satisfaction might only be fine in the heat of the moment, or in the rare event of a one-night stand. Women are human too and maybe the guy was really hot. But to continue a relationship minus the emotion and caring made her feel cheap. She’d rather spend the night with her vibrator or a good book.

Finally she’d met someone normal and could put Dante and that bizarre relationship behind her. She took a sip of her tea and let the light herbal taste roll over her tongue, then slip down her throat.

Amy sighed and stretched. Every muscle in her body stiffened into knotted cords.

Outside tranquilizers or sex, chamomile tea was the only thing that would calm her down enough to sleep.

She placed the mug on the coffee table, stretched out on the sofa, pulled the red blanket over her and stared into the black, cold fireplace, then glanced toward her sliding glass door. Outside the silhouettes of the saguaros stood like gray specters above the desert landscape. When her tired eyes blinked, they almost appeared to move closer. She snuggled under the blanket, pulling it up to her chin, unable to take her eyes off the desert and the saguaros. Were they moving? Shaking her head. No, only her imagination. She closed her eyes.
Don’t look at them.

The desert sounds of trilling, chirping insects pierced the night. A bat squealed. She would listen to the music of the desert until she got sleepy, then she’d go to bed.

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Desert of the Damned

She studied the saguaros suspiciously.
There is nothing frightening about the saguaros.

Keeping her eyes closed, she rolled toward the back of the sofa, pressed her face into the cushions and was asleep before she took another breath.

“Amy?” Jake’s voice called from behind her.

Amy remained motionless for a moment, her mind and body moving through a sea of molasses. Finally she rolled over and blinked. Jake stood in the living room. He wore no shirt, only jeans. She blinked several times, expecting him to disappear. “Jake?”

“Yes. Did I startle you?”

“A little. You came back.” Rubbing her forehead with the heel of her hand, she tried to recall if she had locked her front door when she came home.

“Is that all right? I’ll leave if you want me to.” There was no regret in his voice. He took a step closer and the roaring fire from the fireplace flickered shadows across the muscles of his chest and arms.

“No, that’s fine. You made a fire. How long have you been here? I never heard you come in.”

He chuckled low in his throat. “I know. You were asleep. I knocked and the door was open. I saw you… Are you sure this is all right?” He stuck his hands in his pockets, his mouth quirking in a sexy half smile.

“Sure. It’s fine.” Although in the back of her mind it seemed out of character for Jake to walk into her house. They hadn’t known each other that long. “Why did you come back?”

“I didn’t want the evening to end. I wanted to…”

“Tell me about the animal skin. Tell me your story,” she offered. Maybe he sensed her curiosity about it and felt a need to tell her. Obviously it was something important for Jake and his grandfather to get into a fight over.

“What animal skin? What story?”

“Huh?” Now she was confused. How could he not remember? She started to get up but her muscles refused to comply as if she was trying to move through liquid lead. Of course, she was dreaming. She was having a lucid dream—the only explanation for the surreal situation.

Jake raised his hand and signaled her to lie back down.

Her body obeyed. Leaning back on cushions, she gazed up at him. “Nice for you to join my dream world this evening.”

Jake smiled, his eyes ablaze with a sensual intensity that was arousing. In sleep, she had tossed back the blanket because of the heat from the fire. The Indian cover was tangled around her knees and she knew her thin yellow nightshirt left nothing to the imagination of what she wore beneath it. The thought provoked a twitch to her pussy.

He approached her and knelt on the floor. Her stomach quivered with anticipation and the extent of her arousal was evident by the warm moisture between her legs.

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Kathy Kulig

Venturing without hesitation, she reached out and glided her fingertips over his thick biceps, up to his shoulders, then across his broad chest. The smoldering look that sparkled in his eyes urged her on. Her fingers trailed to his nipples which stiffened and beaded when she pressed and pinched them.

Grasping her hands, he held both arms above her head as he leaned over her and gazed into her eyes. Her stomach fluttered when his lips parted and his mouth took hers, his tongue probing and thrusting deep. He groaned and she whimpered beneath the kiss. Writhing and arching her back, she tried to drink in the kiss and draw his body closer.

Finally, he released her hands and she wrapped her arms around his neck and the kiss intensified. They gasped for breath as the kiss ramped up to urgent and wild desperation.

“Oh God,” she breathed, grabbing his ass and running her hands up and down his back.

“Damn, you’re so hot,” he groaned against her neck. Then his mouth moved down her chest and sucked a nipple through the thin material, creating a wet circle.

Amy shuddered. She groped inside the waistband of his jeans and managed to undo the button and zipper while Jake was fondling her breasts. Working her hand down the front of his open jeans, she grasped his swollen cock and sucked in a breath.

“God, you’re…um…impressive. Like to take these off?” she asked in a teasing tone as she tugged at the jeans.

He smiled wickedly and stood, kicking off his boots, then sliding the jeans down over his narrow hips and muscular thighs. All that hiking really did pay off, at least in her dream vision of him. His abs were ripped and hard. As her gaze traveled down, she sucked in a breath and her lips parted at the sight of his thick cock.

Would loving Jake be like this if I was awake? Truly’s magic. This was all because of Truly’s
magic. What did she do? I’ve never had dreams with such details before.

She could feel the ache and need of her arousal and saw Jake’s desire in his eyes.

The smell of his manly scent was like worn leather, rain and sage.

Touch me now.
Reaching out to him, she wrapped her fist around his shaft and began to pump him. She gently cupped his weighty testicles as she tightened her grip on his shaft with the upward stroke to the head, squeezing a creamy drop of pre-cum at the tip. Could she taste in her dream too? She wanted to lick that drop and slid her mouth over his penis. She opened her mouth and bent toward him to do just that, when he held up a hand.