Ride with the Wind [The Ghost Riders 1] (16 page)

“Yeah.” Reece bumped fists with Dominic and headed for the back of the house, where Raven was probably still sound asleep.

Raven sighed and looked over her shoulder, where Reece was lounging on the bed looking through a magazine. Ever since they had gotten back from their raid two nights ago, either he or Dominic shadowed her just about everywhere she went in the house. She couldn’t concentrate with Reece there.

“Okay, spill it, Reece. What’s going on?” She got up from the desk and walked over to where he lay looking up at her.

“What do you mean?” He smiled and held out his hand to her.

She took it and let him pull her down to sit next to him on the bed.

“Why are you two following me everywhere I go? I can’t concentrate with you in here all the time.”

“We’re just keeping you company and making sure you have everything you need, babe.”

Raven watched as he rubbed light circles around the pulse at her wrist. The sensation sent tingles through her body and a warm feeling to her pussy.

“Can’t you leave me alone when I’m in here writing? I promise to not steal anything or mess your room up.”

Reece chuckled. “I don’t think you could mess up this room if you tried. It’s beyond hope.”

She rolled her eyes and stood up, attempting to pull her hand from his grasp. He sat up and pulled her back down on his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Baby, we like being near you. Does it really bother you when you’re writing?” He nuzzled her neck then kissed it.

Raven sighed and let her head fall back against his shoulder. “Yes, it makes it hard for me to think with you in here. I’m used to being alone when I write.”

He squeezed her before dropping his arms and letting her get to her feet. When she stepped back and looked at him, he leaned back on his hands and watched her through hooded eyes. Her pussy clenched at that look. It reminded her of all the nasty things they had done to her the night before.

“Stop it, Reece. No sex right now. I’ve got to get this chapter finished.”

The door opened and Dominic walked in. He stared at them before closing the door behind him and leaning against it.

“What’s up?”

“You two are driving me insane. I need some time alone. What is going on?”

Dom lifted one eyebrow and looked at Reece. Reece shrugged and sat up again. He didn’t look like he was going to say anything. She turned back to Dominic and crossed her arms.

“We like your company, baby.”

“Don’t give me that. You’re watching me like something is going to happen. What’s going on?”

Dominic frowned and pushed off the door to walk over to the desk. He straddled the chair backward and laid his arms across the back of it.

“We want to keep you close to us. We don’t have any idea if Tussler and Ray will try and get back at us or if The Skulls are planning anything.”

“I’m perfectly safe inside the house with everyone around. There’s no need for you to hover over me like this. It’s driving me insane!”

Reece stood up and dropped his hands on her shoulders, massaging them. “Raven, we don’t want anything to happen to you. Besides, I like watching you when you write. You talk to yourself.”

“You’re making it impossible for me to think, though. I need to be alone when I’m working.”

Dominic stared past her at Reece and shook his head. The other man squeezed her shoulders before dropping his hands from them and walking toward the door. Dominic joined him.

“We’ll give you some space for writing, but be sure you’re around one or both of us anytime you’re out of this room. Promise?”

Raven smiled. “I promise. I like your company, but not when I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Okay, babe. We’ll back off when you’re working.” Dominic and Reece walked out and shut the door quietly behind them.

Raven pumped her fist and returned to the computer to get back to work. After about fifteen minutes of reviewing what she’d written, she decided she would have to scrap most of it and start over on the chapter. She was trying to capture her heroine’s deep anger at her situation without making her sound like a shrew. It wasn’t working.

She stood up and paced the room while snippets of conversation bounced around in her head. Intermingled with them was her own situation and how she had fallen in love with two men. She wrote ménages all the time, but living in one was entirely different. There weren’t any safe and open communities where one could do that and be happy. Besides, they would tire of her soon enough. They were used to variety when it came to sex. She wasn’t anyone special to hold their attention for long.

Realizing where her thoughts had drifted, Raven kicked the desk then saved her work and closed the computer down. It was getting close to dinnertime anyway. She might as well help cook and then try and start over later.

Cindy was working on meatloaf and potatoes when she offered to help. They chatted back and forth about mundane things while they fixed the meal. No sooner had she started peeling the potatoes than Dominic walked in and shook his head at her.

“What?”

“Didn’t I tell you to find one of us when you weren’t writing?”

“Dom, I’m in the kitchen helping cook. I’m not going anywhere.”

“We’ll talk about it later.” His deep voice had her looking up from what she was doing.

“Uh-oh.” Cindy giggled. “Someone’s in trouble now.”

“Mind your own business, Cindy.” Dominic turned and left the room.

“He’s getting pretty possessive.” Cindy’s singsong voice had her shaking her head.

“It won’t last. Neither he nor Reece are the sticking kind.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen them so tied up over anyone like they are over you.”

Cindy didn’t sound jealous about it. That surprised her. She knew that the guys had been with pretty much all of the women at the house at one time or another. If it had been her in Cindy’s place, she would have been chewing nails.

“It’s just the situation with Satan’s Sons and The Skulls. Once everything is back to normal, they’ll lose interest again.”

Raven had no illusions of marriage and happily ever after. Tears pricked at the backs of her eyelids at that thought, but she fought them off. She was a grown woman and could deal with it. If they managed to get rid of Michael for her, she would move on so that she wouldn’t have to see them with other women the rest of her life. If Chaz got things worked out before then, she would move back with them.

For now, she would enjoy the men while they were interested in her. One thing she couldn’t let them know about was that she had fallen in love with them. She was sure the minute they figured that out it would all be over. She was going to hang on to them for as long as possible, because once it was over, she wasn’t sure how she would be able to handle living there.

* * * *

After dinner, Raven hurried back to Reece’s bedroom to write. Dominic watched her go with a half smile. She was in so much trouble for breaking her promise to let them know when she stopped writing. His hand itched to warm her sweet ass. He looked over at Reece to find the other man grinning and shaking his head.

“She is going to throw a fit when you spank her, Dom. You know that.”

“I’m counting on it. Nothing gets me hotter than when she gets mad.”

Reece stretched then walked out of the kitchen toward the den. Dominic followed him. He wanted a beer. When he stepped over to the bar, Turk pushed a beer toward him then Reece.

“Got that information you needed on family-man Mike.”

Dominic and Reece both looked at Turk. He grinned at them and nodded toward the sanctuary.

“Let’s have a look.” Dominic beat both men into the other room.

Turk dropped a folder in front of him and took a seat across the table from where Reece had settled. Opening the folder, he found a picture of the asshole, Raven’s ex-fiancé. He moved on to the printouts Turk pointed to and found bank statements with an impressive amount of money showing in them. He looked up.

“He’s getting regular deposits of twenty to forty thousand a month in his charity account for Family Values and a steady ten grand in his offshore account that I had to dig through several layers to find. The money in the public charity account is used for various other charities and related groups, as well as making its way into the coffers of some US senators.”

Reece whistled at the pictures of Michael with those senators. Dominic looked over at him and grinned. It looked like they were going to figure out a way to rid Raven of the bastard after all.

“Where is the money coming from?” Reece took a drink of his beer.

Turk reached over and turned several pages in the folder and pointed at a picture of two men talking outside at a street café.

“The man with the beard is Emilio Cortez, and the other man is none other than Michael’s personal assistant, Jeff Hughes. I found several pictures the DEA has of those two together as well as a few with Michael.” Turk turned the pictures over and pointed at another printout. “This is a copy of a payment to a company called Henderson and Associates. I’m digging to find out more about this one, because it’s a regular payment of five thousand dollars a month for services, but there’s no indication what those services are.”

“How close are you to learning anything about this company?” Dominic examined the copy.

“I have some feelers out and hope to hear something by tomorrow night. In the meantime I’m working on the drug angle with Cortez to see if I can help the DEA out some.” He winked at Dominic.

“Good work. Have you heard anything from Vernon or Rhodes?”

“Last call was this morning. They were about two hours outside of where Tussler said she was. I expect another phone call in the morning after they’ve had time to size up the situation.”

“Let me know when you hear from them.” Dominic closed the folder and handed it back to Turk.

The other man took it and left him and Reece at the table. He figured that if things worked out, they had another week, maybe two, left with Raven before she was a free woman.

“I don’t like that expression on your face, Dom. What are you thinking?” Reece emptied his beer and set it back on the table.

“Turk is going to find something to nail Michael with soon. We don’t have much time left with Raven unless we can convince her we’re all she needs.”

“And you’re going to spank her tonight.” Reece shook his head. “Man, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“She’s full of fire, Reece. You know she is. She’ll love it once she gets past being pissed about it.”

“You better be right. I don’t want to lose her now that you’ve made me admit that I love her.”

“Just follow my lead and we’ll win her in the end. You’ll see.” Dominic stood up and tossed his empty bottle in the trash.

He checked his watch. He figured Raven would be deep into her writing about then. He wanted to catch her off guard, so now was a good time. He nodded at Reece and headed for the back of the house.

When he opened the door, Raven didn’t even look up. All her attention was on what she was writing. He looked over his shoulder at Reece and smiled. She was going to be so pissed. He hoped to turn that anger into passion with his hand. He walked over to stand behind her while Reece closed and locked the door. She jerked but didn’t stop typing as he closed his hand around the nape of her neck.

“Raven, save your work and shut it down. I owe you a spanking for disobeying me.”

“I’m in the middle of a scene, Dom. Just a minute.” She ignored him and continued typing.

He arched an eyebrow at Reece, who was standing to one side, watching. Reece just shook his hand in amusement.

“You just added another five licks on your punishment for disobeying an order. Now save your work and stand up.” He used his most stern voice.

Raven looked over her shoulder at him and frowned. “You’re not spanking me, Dominic. You can just get that out of your head right now.” She started to turn back around, but he grabbed her by the arms and pulled her out of her chair.

“Save her work, Reece.” He wrapped his arms around her, trapping hers against her body as he did.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Raven struggled against him.

“Calm down. I told you that I would punish you for not telling one of us you were leaving the bedroom. Now settle down.”

He stood her up by the bed and glared down at her.

“Strip.”

“Screw you!”

“That’s five more. You’re up to twenty. Do you want to make it twenty-five?”

She fumed at him then pulled her T-shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor before unfastening her jeans and shoving them along with her panties to the ground. Reece knelt beside her and removed her shoes so that she could step out of the jeans and underwear.

Dominic sat down on the edge of the bed and repositioned Raven over his knees. She struggled halfheartedly at first then calmed down. He ran his hand around her ass cheeks, marveling at how smooth they felt. He lifted his hand and landed a swat on her left side. She yelped.

“Hey, that hurt!”

“It’s supposed to hurt. You disobeyed me.”

He tapped the other cheek. She hissed and turned her head and glared at Reece, who was standing in front of them.

“Count for me, Raven. That’s two.”

She growled, but when he landed the next swat, she counted. By the time he had reached twenty, she was moaning with each pop of his hand. Her lovely body arched as if to get closer to his hand in anticipation of the next slap. His cock was as hard as her ass was red. He looked up at Reece.

“I think she enjoyed her punishment, Reece. Check for me.”

Raven floated on the endorphins flowing through her bloodstream. She could feel her pussy juices flowing down her leg from Dominic’s spanking. God, she would never have believed she could get off on being spanked. She’d written about it countless times but never actually experienced the heated sting that turned into an itching need for more. Her body was not her own at that minute.

She felt Reece’s fingers swipe through her juices and heard him pronounce her ready for them. Dominic continued to smooth the heat against her ass with his hands. Restlessness began to flood her with the irrational need for something else.