ShotgunRelations (6 page)

Atkins nodded. “Yes. When I got there it
was locked up tight. I asked Frank about any new hands, or any who might have
left right after he noticed the missing cows. He said there weren’t any and
that all the hands on the Laughing Wolf have been with him for years.”

Jack felt Liz’s fingers tighten on his arm.
“Sheriff, that’s not true. We hired three new men during the month we lost the
cattle. And I let two cowhands go around that same time. I don’t know why Frank
told you otherwise.”

“I’ll need those men’s names then, to turn
over to the task force the Texas Rangers have set up to combat rustling. You
have any idea why Frank would have lied?”

Liz shook her head. “Maybe he forgot.”

That sounded like a weak excuse if Jack had
ever heard one. “Liz, how long has Frank been your foreman?”

“Since I was a little girl. Daddy hired
him.” She frowned as though she couldn’t believe Williams might collude with
thieves. “He wouldn’t…”

Sheriff Atkins cleared his throat. “Frank’s
a good guy, Duval. I’ve known him for years. If he didn’t mention the hirings
and firings he must’ve had good reason.”

Like covering up for thieves.
Jack kept his suspicion to himself. It might be that he was
allowing his dislike for the man Liz catered to more than he approved of to
color his opinion. Meanwhile, he saw a Bar C pickup pull up in front of the
sheriff’s SUV. He watched Four get out and stomp up to the fence, a swarthy
Latino at his heels. Jack recognized him as the Bar C’s foreman, who’d checked
guests’ wedding invitations yesterday before letting them drive up to the main
house for the ceremony.

“Hey, Four. Diego. From the looks on your
faces I guess you’re about to report more rustling.” Atkins separated two
strands of barbed wire so the men could climb through and join them.

“Todd, the bastards had to have gotten in
yesterday afternoon and made off with twenty yearling steers while we were
celebrating Bye’s wedding. This has got to stop.”

The sheriff shook his head. “How do you
know that was when it happened?”

Diego replied, looking as though Atkins was
nuts. “We ride fences every day at the Bar C, Sheriff. The count went down by
twenty head between ten o’clock yesterday morning and a few minutes ago. Our
cowhands were all celebrating Bye’s wedding at a barbecue that went on until
the wee hours of this morning, so you probably don’t need to question them.”

Atkins turned to Liz. “How about your
workers? Were they all together celebrating Bye’s wedding too?”

“No sir. My mother and I were the only
people from the Laughing Wolf who went to the wedding. Jack and I left the Bar
C about seven o’clock.”

Four finally met Jack’s gaze. “So you and
Liz…”

“Yeah. Liz and I. What of it?” Jack felt
Liz’s surprise at the obvious animosity he and Four showed toward each other.

“At first I thought Liz had called her
lawyer out here to protect her interests, that’s all.” Four shrugged.

Jack restrained himself from strangling the
old man. “I’ll protect her interests any time they need protecting, but I’m
here now strictly as Liz’s lover.” He liked the way her cheeks turned pink at
that last word. “From what I’ve heard so far, I’d say you need to look for
somebody who has tires with treads like the ones we’re looking at. Seems to me
they’re fairly unusual. Nobody cuts a fence and trespasses on a pasture that
has no livestock in it unless they’ve got cutting another fence and rustling
somebody else’s cows in mind.”

Diego had moved along the track toward the
cut fence that had opened up onto Bar C property. “I found a couple of boot
prints, boss. Horse tracks too.”

“Some of those prints are probably ours. We
were riding fences, found the repair and got down to take a look,” Jack told
him.

Diego shook his head. “There are footprints
on the Bar C side too. Looks like the rustlers went out into the pasture to
pick out the steers they wanted to steal.”

Atkins and Four strode over to the spot
where Diego was pointing. “I’ll get somebody from the task force out here to
take plaster casts of the tire treads and the footprints over there. Four, keep
your men off the area around where your fence was cut so the guys won’t be
getting their prints mixed up with the rustlers’.”

Diego pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll tell
them to stay away from this fence altogether, Sheriff. It’s doubtful you’ll
find footprints of any Bar C wranglers, because we ride fences on horseback or
in Jeeps. Four, I’ll put some cowboys on 24/7 watch in this pasture but I’ll
tell them to stay far away from the fences.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier if you just had a
few cowboys climb the windmills and watch all the fences with binoculars?” Jack
asked when he and Liz joined the others.

Four shot him a disgusted look. “I doubt we
have anybody but Bye and maybe one of the engineers who’d be willing to climb
any distance up those things. You have a good idea though. We could place
cameras with wide-angle lenses high up on the bases of some windmills and
record everything that happens on the ground. That way we’d be able to catch
thieves red-handed.”

Liz dropped Jack’s hand and gestured toward
the closest grouping of the tall metal windmill bases. “If you’d put some up on
these platforms and aim them toward the Laughing Wolf, I’d be happy to pay for
the extra cameras.”

She was one smart lady. Every time he was
with her, Jack admired her more. Having a woman who could take charge outside
the bedroom the way Liz did appealed greatly, since she obviously wanted to
cede control to him as far as their sex life went. When he smiled at her she
moved closer and hitched her fingers in his back pocket.

“If you don’t need us anymore now, we’ll
get on with checking the rest of this fence.” Jack could tolerate his old man
only in small doses, and he’d had enough right now, so he walked over to where
they’d ground-tied Zeus and Athena and led them back to Liz.

Atkins waved his hand. “Go on. I’ll stick
around until the task force guys get here. Four, I’ll be in touch.”

When Four gave Liz a leg up Jack wanted to
hit him. By the time he’d mounted and they’d trotted away, his annoyance had
dissipated. After all, Four had done the polite thing. He should have
remembered to help Liz up. Bye would have, but then Bye had been brought up
around ranches and horses 24/7 from the day he was born. Jack hadn’t.

Chapter Four

Liz couldn’t help noticing that Four and
Jack had seemed at odds with one another. Come to think of it, she recalled
having sensed a sudden, distinct chill in the air when the two had shaken hands
at the reception yesterday. “What’s going on between you and Four?” she asked
when they reached a line shack and went inside.

“What do you mean?”

“Back there you both acted as though you
wanted to tear into each other. And he was barely civil to us yesterday.”

He sat on the narrow bunk and dragged her
down beside him. “We’ve got some less than pleasant history between us, but
it’s…confidential.”

Liz caught Jack’s brief hesitation and
figured there must have been some legal issue the two men had tangled over, or
maybe a disagreement about Bye’s wife sharing office space with Jack. “It’s all
right.”

“Have you forgotten I’m your master?”

“No, Master. I don’t believe I ever will
forget that.”

“Good. Take off your clothes for me. I want
to look at my sweet, submissive woman.”

She got up and took off her Stetson, giving
it a playful twirl before tossing it onto one of the two wooden chairs next to
a small wooden table. Crossing to the bootjack in front of the fireplace, she
took off her boots, then returned to stand in front of him. She loved the way
he visually stripped her with his dark, dangerous gaze. He made her feel sexy
and desirable in a way no man had done before.

“What would you like to see first, Master?”
Her hands rested on her belt buckle.

“Unbutton your shirt. Then peel it off so I
can suck on your pretty pink nipples. I’ve been practically drooling ever since
you came to the barn and gave me a good view of them poking against that thin
shirt.”

Her pussy clenched at his softly spoken
seduction. She unsnapped the shirt by tugging at it in the center. “Do you want
it off, Master?” When he nodded she let the cotton fall to the floor and stood
there under his inscrutable gaze. He took both of her hands and drew her so
close that his hot breath scalded her denim-clad pussy.

“I changed my mind. I want you naked now.”
He unbuckled her belt. “Unfasten your jeans for me.”

When she did he flattened his palm against
the bare flesh she’d uncovered. She sucked in her belly, giving him better
access. He stroked the smooth skin of her mound, reminding her how carefully
he’d shaved her…how incredible his touch there made her feel.

“Take them off. Now.”

Desperate for more of her strong, sexy
master, she caught the sides of her jeans in both hands and pushed them over
her hips. Cool air bathed her hot, swollen clit and kissed her wet pussy.

“Yeah. Take them all the way off. I want to
taste your sweet honey.” With strong, impatient hands he took her jeans the
rest of the way off. Leaning over, he blew hard on her pussy. That made her
juices flow even faster. He must have known that, because he leaned in and
swiped his tongue over her outer lips.

When he did, he pulled her legs farther
apart and took her clit between his teeth. His fingers strayed along her slit,
arousing and frustrating her at the same time because she wanted…

To exist only to please her master. To make
his will her own. Yesterday at this time she couldn’t have put this desperate
need into words, even in her own head. She hadn’t even been aware of it when
she’d put on the dress she’d desperately thought would make her look attractive
to Jack, the one she’d imagined would have other women looking at her with
envy. But it was true. She, Liz Wolfe, self-sufficient rancher that she was,
wanted more than anything to submit to her master’s sexual demands.

Any of his demands.
When he finger-fucked her, then used her own lubrication to ease
the way for his fingers to probe her ass, she found the idea of him fucking her
there less repugnant than it had been when he’d asked if she’d allow it. The
insistent pressure was less hurtful than it was arousing.

I exist only to please my master. To
give him back the pleasure he’s given me
. When she
willed her muscles to relax he slipped a second finger up her ass and began to
move slowly in and out.

Her cunt clenched at this new, different
stimulation. She imagined him fucking her with his cock the way he was claiming
her ass with his fingers. “Do you want to fuck me like that, Master?”

“Hush. I haven’t given you leave to talk.
Feel my fingers inside you. You’re so hot. So wet. So ready to be taken.
Straddle me and put my cock wherever you want it,” he said, straightening and
sliding his butt to the edge of the bed. “Hold on while I get my jeans out of
the way.”

The sparsely furnished shack lent no
ambience but none was needed. The sight of her master, his handsome face
flushed with arousal and his hands not quite steady as he freed his cock from
his jeans, was all it took. Liz was a trembling mass of nerves by the time he
pushed down his pants, rolled on a condom and motioned for her to straddle his
muscular thighs and upper abdomen.

“Rest your knees on the bed beside me.
Raise up a little. Put my cock inside you.”

Could she? Her ass still tingled from the
stimulation of his fingers. Her pussy ached with need. She couldn’t, could she?
His words from last night echoed in her brain as she grasped his hard, hot sex.
Even if I told you that was one thing that gives me a lot of pleasure?

He looked up at her, lust evident in his
glittering gaze. “Your decision, honey.”

Yes I can
.

Taking a deep breath, she rubbed his cock
along her slit, past her vagina to her rear entrance. When she pressed down on
him he took her hands and placed them on her breasts. “Easy. Play with your
nipples while you’re taking my cock inside you. I love listening to us both
breathing hard, feeling your wet, slick pussy and smelling your arousal. I want
to look at your flushed, sexy face while I take your virgin ass.”

Slowly she sank until her backside felt it
would split apart, but she wouldn’t stop. She willed her flesh to give way and
let him in. “Like this, Master?”

“God yeah. Relax and let me in all the way.
You can do it.” His words came out ragged, as if he were already on the edge.

Her ass burned but she did as he said, her
gaze focused on his strong, compelling features, his perfectly shaped ears set
closely against the sides of his scalp, which was shadowed with a hint of dark
hair beneath his olive skin. Following his order, she pinched her nipples hard
as she impaled herself inch by inch. He bent his head, looked at their joined
bodies and groaned. She followed his gaze, saw her rigid clit reddened from his
attention and her slit glistening with lubrication from her cunt. The sight of
his cock half-buried in her ass made her want to tell him that it hurt too
much, to beg him to stop.

No, what she wanted was to experience the
friction of him sliding in and out of the tight, dark place where no man had
been before. “Please, Master, fuck my ass.” Remembering his order to keep
playing with her breasts, she pinched the nipples hard, then tugged at them
until they swelled and elongated beneath her fingers.

Sensations coursed through every nerve ending
in her body, from her asshole, where he’d begun moving up to meet her every
tentative thrust, to her wet, swollen cunt, where she felt the invasion of her
rear passage all the way to her womb.

The pain began to subside, leaving her with
a sense of fullness—and incredibly hot arousal. Emboldened, when he levered his
body off the bed and braced his feet on the floor, she spread her legs farther,
took him all the way up her ass until she felt his smooth, heavy scrotum rest
against her butt crack.

“Look at us. My God, your ass is even
tighter than your cunt. Am I hurting you?”

She tilted her chin up and looked into his
eyes. “No, Master.”

When he pulled out, she felt empty.

“Get up and lie facedown on the bed.” There
was no question that he’d issued her an order as he stripped off the rest of
his clothes.

Confused, she did as her master demanded,
but she felt so empty—so needy to have him part of her once more. She felt his
hands on her hips, the press of his fingers on her flesh as he lifted her butt
and spread her legs wide open.

She steeled herself for his cock but
instead felt his warm breath and his slick, wet tongue on her buttocks, her
inner thighs. He fastened something thin and wet around her anus. “It’s a
dental dam. I’m going to taste you with my tongue. You’ll like it, I promise.”

Before she could protest he licked his way
down her ass crack, all the way to her anus, where he slid his tongue up and
down in the tight opening. A feeling of intense lust had her squirming, seeking
more. She wanted his cock again, wanted to come while he was deep in her most
private hole, but she distracted herself by sliding her hands under her breasts
and rolling her nipples between her thumbs and forefingers.

It seemed as though he licked and tongued
her forever. She felt an orgasm coming so she repeated his words in her head.
You
can’t come, not until your master says you can
. She clenched her fists so
hard the nails dug into her flesh. She tried to ignore the sensations in her
ass, her pussy, even the nipples she’d tortured to hypersensitive nubs at his
command.

“Don’t come now.” He raised his head and
gave two stinging slaps to each ass cheek.

The imprints of his hands would probably
stay on her ass for a week but she welcomed the pain. She’d almost ask for
more, but…

The sharp pull of adhesive let her know he
was removing the barrier over her anus before he spread her butt cheeks and
sank his cock into her ass again, this time not as carefully as before. She
loved it—the stinging pain, the incredible sensations that made her yearn to
take all of him, anywhere. Any time and any place he led her. She buried a
little scream in the pillow and closed her eyes.

She pictured him on his knees, behind her,
his cock buried deep in her rectum, his balls bouncing against her sopping,
swollen cunt. Yesterday that picture would have frightened her. Today she found
it terribly arousing to service her master’s needs this way. When she imagined
him fucking her ass at the Neon Lasso she got even hotter.

I want the whole world to know he’s my
master. That I’m his to do with in whatever ways will give him pleasure.

Jack grasped her hips, steadied her for his
thrusts. He focused on her creamy skin, the curve of her back, her soft
ponytail spread over the pillow where she’d laid her cheek at his command. So
soft, so malleable, she was the perfect submissive. It surprised and thrilled
him that she’d tossed away this limit so quickly.

She loves me.
It came to him mid-thrust when she moved against him and took all
of him. He’d been careful not to hurt her by going too hard and too deep, but
God he loved the feel of her sphincter muscles grasping the base of his dick
while the wet heat from her cunt bathed his balls. “You can come for me any
time now, honey.”

Keeping the rhythm that had his cock ready
to explode, he slid his hands under her belly and found her swollen clit.
“You’re incredibly hot, aren’t you? You like taking my cock up the ass. Tell
me.”

“God yes.”

“Say it. Say you’re my slave, you exist to
make me come.”

“I’m—your slave, Master. I’m yours to use
any way you want. Oh God, fuck me harder, make me come.” She sounded desperate.

He slid two fingers up her wet, swollen
cunt and scissored them back and forth while he rubbed his thumb over her clit
and fucked her ass slow and deep. When she started to tremble and whimper
against the pillow, he leaned over her and bit the tender spot where her
shoulder and the back of her neck came together.

Her whimper turned into a keening scream
and when it did, he lost it. He came in long, hard bursts. “Hell yes,” he
yelled as everything turned black inside his head and he collapsed over his sex
slave’s quivering back.

When he came to they were still joined. He
hated having to pull out but needed to hold her—just hold her. Somebody up
there had to like him, because they’d brought him a perfect sex slave in Liz.
He wasn’t about to let her go.

The imprints of his hands stood out on her
delightful little butt. He bent and kissed each mark he’d left on her. He
imagined claiming her for all to see at the Neon Lasso, seeing her wearing the
gold collar he’d commissioned years ago but never given any sub because he
hadn’t found one he wanted 24/7—until now. “Turn over,” he said, wanting to see
where the gold clasp made in the image of his dagger tattoos would rest against
her throat.

She obeyed instantly as he knew she would.
Her hands came up to frame his face, her fingers caressing his scalp while her
gaze held his in a very unsubmissive sort of way. He liked it though—liked that
she wasn’t afraid to show him the extent of her lust. Her appreciation for her
master. “Your head feels scratchy, Master,” she said, moving her hands up into
the longer stubble that surrounded the landing strip on top.

“The better to scratch your tits with.” He
pulled away and rubbed his head over first one breast, then the other. “I’ll
get to the barber in the morning before I have to be in court.”

“Mmm, that feels delicious, Master. Don’t
stop.”

With Jack sex had always been strictly
business, but he found that her whimsical play turned him on. Not to mention
that the sex was as hot as any he’d experienced in any club. “I want to imagine
how my collar’s going to look on your slender, delicate throat.” He moved up
her body and traced the imaginary collar around her neck. Then he envisioned
the dagger, the mark that would tell everybody in the BDSM world that she was
his property. “It’s gold, with a dagger for the clasp. A dagger like the ones
in my tattoos.”