ShotgunRelations (14 page)

He could barely hold back from taking her
again without telling her everything. Without making the confession that might
lose him the only woman who’d ever meant more to him than a submissive outlet
for his lust.

“I ought to paddle your naughty ass for
tempting me so,” he growled as he grasped her lace-clad shoulders and dropped a
light kiss on her lips. “But we’re going to talk before we play.”
Even if it
kills me.

“All right, Master. Maria has dinner ready.
I thought you might be hungry after working all day without a break.”

What I want is to eat you. For hours and
hours. I’m scared shitless that you’ll never let me do that again.
“All right. I am hungry, now that you mention it. But you do look
good enough to feast on.”

Her cheeks were a pretty pink when he said
that. His submissive lover still held on to a good bit of innocence even though
he’d fucked her every which way but loose, in front of a crowd of admirers at
the club as well as in his bed and hers.

Just another reason why he loved her…and
why he had to level with her about who he was.

* * * * *

“We have to talk.” He’d put it off as long
as he could, even letting Maria serve him seconds of the flan that reminded him
of what Hortensia used to make when he’d been a little boy. Now they sat in
Liz’s old-fashioned living room on a tapestry-covered Victorian sofa that would
have done justice to a medieval torture chamber. A perfect place to drop
secrets that could well have unpleasant consequences.

Jack turned to Liz and took her hand,
trying hard not to get distracted by the sight of his collar, its dagger clasp
lying comfortably in the hollow of her pale, very kissable throat. “Four
mentioned to me last week that your father left the Laughing Wolf to you, not
your mother.”

“No. That can’t be.” Liz shot him a
disbelieving look. “If that’s true why wasn’t I told?”

“Here. Take a look at the papers I got from
the courthouse. Your father added a codicil to his will before he died. It
stated your mother would have control of the ranch until you turned twenty-one,
and that you shouldn’t be told of your inheritance until that time. The
Merriman law firm—the one I bought from the original Dan Merriman’s son after
he was disbarred—was charged with informing you.”

Liz’s hand shook when she took the will and
began to read it. “Why didn’t anybody tell me this until now? It makes no
sense.”

Jack sighed. “Seven years ago when you
turned twenty-one, Dan Merriman Junior was still practicing law. His father had
died several years before that, long before he was charged with fulfilling his
responsibility to inform you of your inheritance. As you probably know, the son
made a mess out of his clients’ legal affairs, so much so that he was disbarred
four years ago, before he sold what was left of his practice to me.

“I still haven’t found your father’s file
among the papers that came to me when I bought the Merriman practice. There
should be a file for the Laughing Wolf somewhere in the papers I found in the
storeroom at my office, and that file should contain a copy of your father’s
will. Mary Ellen has spent days searching through that nightmare jumble of
papers but she still hasn’t found it. The copy in your hand came from the
probate office in the courthouse.”

Hoping Liz wasn’t looking at him and
thinking what he was afraid of, Jack decided to say it first. “You know you’re
a very rich young woman now, probably too rich to want to be the 24/7 sex slave
of a simple country lawyer.” He took a deep breath and said a silent prayer
that he hadn’t fucked up their relationship beyond repair.

She took his hand. “I love country lawyers.
And I love my master. It’s not your fault that old Dan Merriman’s son was a
worthless drunk. From what I’ve heard, you’ve had to put out fires he started
for a lot of clients since you first moved to Caden.”

Then she turned and met his gaze, deep hurt
apparent in her expression. “Mother must have known about Daddy’s will. Why
didn’t she tell me?” she asked, her voice almost childlike.

“I don’t know, unless what Four said is
true. He told me he wouldn’t be surprised if Mavis thinks there’s some treasure
on the place that nobody knows about and she wants to profit from it. That
sounds farfetched as hell, but I can’t imagine any other reason she might not
want you to know the Laughing Wolf belongs to you.”

Jack wished to hell Liz didn’t look as
though she were about to cry. She didn’t deserve to find out this way that
Mavis had deliberately kept her in the dark for all this time since she should
have been told of her inheritance, and there was not a fucking thing he could
say to mitigate her pain.

“You really didn’t know about this until
last week?” She spoke quietly but in a tone that fairly begged him for
reassurance.

“I didn’t know. I feel rotten because I
should have sorted through every one of those jumbled-up files as soon as I
bought the Merriman practice. Your father’s will may be in that storeroom
somewhere, but so far we haven’t been able to find it. Dan Junior told me when
we closed on the sale that some of the files had gotten lost or destroyed, but
that’s no excuse. I should have gone through the entire mess with a fine-tooth
comb. If I had, I’d have contacted you immediately, as soon as I knew.”

“It’s okay. You’ve told me now. What do I
do about Mother?” Liz still looked shell-shocked.

He wished he could do something to erase
her sense of betrayal. “You don’t have to do anything. If you want I’ll show
Mavis a copy of the will and let her know you’re aware that you’re the sole
owner of the Laughing Wolf. According to your father’s will, she has the right
to live here as long as she wants and to receive a generous allowance from the
ranch’s profits, so nothing much has to change about her living arrangements.”

“Oh.”

Liz was hurt—justifiably so—that her mother
had apparently decided to keep her father’s bequest a secret. All Jack knew to
do was hold her, so he did. He hoped to hell she’d still want him after he hit
her with the other secret.

He didn’t dare keep it from her any longer.
Four wouldn’t say anything and neither would Bye or Karen, but Jack had the
feeling that Deidre would soon come home to stay. He was certain she’d do
anything in her power to hurt him as badly as she believed he’d hurt her. No
one had been able to convince his spoiled half-sister that he hadn’t
intentionally caused her pain.

He summoned up the courage to plunge ahead.
“Honey, are you up to hearing something else I should have told you as soon as
I realized we had something worth fighting for?”

“I—I guess so.”

“Okay. This spring my mother told me that
Four is my biological father. She waited to spill the news to Four—and his
legitimate children—until the day of Mae Caden’s funeral, when she made a
blatant play for Four. Up until then Bye had been my friend. Needless to say,
learning that we shared the same father put a strain on the friendship. Bye was
furious because he and I had played together with Karen before either of us
knew the same blood ran through our veins.

“Deidre had decided months earlier that she
wanted me for a playmate and I suppose now that I didn’t do enough to
discourage her flirtation even after I knew the truth.” Jack ran his fingers
through the short bristles on his head, trying to think of a way to put the
best light on the fucking crazy situation. “Deidre went off the deep end,
thinking I’d led her on knowing we couldn’t be together.”

“My God, Jack. Now I know why you and Four
were barely civil to each other. You’ve made peace now, though. Haven’t you?”

“Somewhat. I still resent the fact that he
and Marianne let me believe for thirty-two years that my father had died before
I was born. And I imagine he’s still smarting because Mother gave him a
figurative black eye with Bye and Deidre—not to mention that she drove Deidre
away from home because of her spiteful revelation.”

Liz looked at him with tear-filled eyes.
“Were you interested in her before you knew?”

“No.” No way did he want Liz to think he’d
set his sights on the Caden heiress before learning that she was his
half-sister. “Deidre is hot as hell, but she was too young and way too
sheltered for a guy like me. Not to mention that I didn’t make anywhere near
enough money to keep her in the style to which my old man has accustomed her.”

“Oh.”

He wished he could guess what was going
through Liz’s head. She’d gotten quiet. Too quiet. That scared him more than if
she’d yelled and railed at him. “Yeah, oh. Well, my situation changed some
before we started going out, because Four made me the owner of a trust fund he
established so the earnings of the trust would pay Marianne’s bills for the
rest of her life. With conscience money that probably didn’t make a dent in
Four’s holdings, he made me a potentially wealthy man.”

Liz nibbled at her lower lip, as though
deep in thought. “I see. So you felt when you asked me out that you wouldn’t be
taking on more than you could afford?”

This wasn’t going well, but then Jack
hadn’t expected that it would. “Not exactly. I hadn’t been looking for a
relationship. I had my practice to repair and grow, and a sexual outlet at the
Neon Lasso.”

He owed her the whole truth, so he took a
deep breath and said it straight out. “The first time I asked you for a date it
was out of spite toward Four, because I’d heard he was interested in annexing
the Laughing Wolf by marrying your mother.” He paused, his gaze on Liz’s
tear-stained face. “After spending a little time with you, though, I kept
coming back because I liked being with you. Because I wanted you, just you. For
God’s sake, honey, please believe me.

“When we’d slept together the first time I
knew I wanted you for a lifetime, not just a few nights’ play. I didn’t give a
rat’s ass whether or not Four married your mom and annexed the Laughing Wolf. I
still don’t care if you want to hand over your ranch to your mother or Four or
some charity. I want to marry you for yourself. For no reason besides that I
love you.”

Taking a chance that she’d believe him,
Jack pulled the heart-shaped box out of his briefcase and set it down in front
of her. “Marry me, Liz. Be my friend and lover as well as my sex slave. Have my
children. Grow old with me.”

“Why should I?” Her words came out
practically drowned in tears and that made him feel like shit.

“Because I love you. Because I want to
spend the rest of my life making up for having hurt you. Please, honey.” He
opened the box and picked up the ring with etched bluebells on the age-softened
rose-gold band and a pretty oval-shaped diamond that sparkled in the light of
the antique lamp on the table next to the sofa. “Give me your hand.”

When she didn’t respond he repeated
himself, his tone stern—a master’s order he prayed she would heed. When she met
his gaze and slowly put her left hand in his, he said a silent prayer of
thanks.

Then he slid the ring on her finger and
lifted her hand to his lips. “I may have started out the wrong way, for the
wrong reasons. I give you my word I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.”

“I love you too, Master. Enough to forgive
you anything. Now we have to make peace with my mother. She’ll have a ball
planning our wedding.”

Jack gathered Liz in his arms. “Just as
long as this wedding takes place soon. I want to sleep next to you every night
and wake up with you every morning. Okay with you?”

“Yes, Master.”

Chapter Nine

“We’re going to the Neon Lasso tonight.
It’s been too much work and too little play for both of us this last month,”
Jack told Liz when he called her one Friday afternoon. “Be ready in an hour. I
want you to put a plug in your tight little ass to warm you up for me.”

Liz could hardly wait. Stripping off her
filthy jeans and shirt—getting stock into barns in preparation for a freezing
November night was dirty work—she stepped in the shower and scrubbed off the
grime before carefully shaving herself for her master’s pleasure. She looked
down at her tattoo, as pleased by its message as she was with the gold collar
around her neck.

She was proud to belong to Jack. She loved
him and looked forward to next month, when they’d get married in the living
room of the house where she’d lived all her life. Every once in a while she’d
have doubts about his feelings because he’d admitted he had asked her out at
first to spite the father who still denied him publicly and probably always
would.

Tonight wasn’t the time to let her
insecurities take over, she told herself while she applied fragrant, arousing
lotion over her freshly shaved pussy. Feeling brave, she rouged her nipples
after making up her face more dramatically than usual.

Back in her bedroom, she checked the door
to make sure it was shut before opening the bottom drawer of her dresser and
taking out the butt plug Jack had made her buy in the club’s well-equipped toy
shop. Trying hard not to be embarrassed by what she was doing, she worked it up
her ass.
Your master told you to do this,
she kept repeating to herself
even after the plug was fully seated, its flat base flush against her anus.

Putting on the cowgirl costume Jack had
bought her the last time they’d played at the club, she looked at herself in
the mirror and watched her cheeks turn bright red at the sight of her swollen,
reddened nipples poking out from the strategically placed holes in the bolero
top.

Maybe my master will have them pierced,
the way he mentioned the first time we made love.
She imagined how they’d look in this outfit if they had hoops dangling from
them and the thought excited her a lot.

Her collar shone brightly, shouting to
anybody in the BDSM lifestyle that she was her master’s slave—his property to
do with in whatever way he wished. She often fantasized that Jack would attach
the leash she knew had come with the collar and lead her around like the sex
slave she was.

The bottom of her costume reminded her of a
cowboy’s chaps—mighty skimpy ones, she thought, laughing at the absurd
comparison. Made of red leather to match the bolero, the chaps covered the
outsides of her legs, leaving the insides bare except for narrow straps around
her thighs and calves that kept the legs in place. A slightly wider band low on
her hips curved around her mound and formed a frame for the dagger tattoo it
left completely exposed, a clear warning that she was her master’s prize
possession.

The see-through red G-string that had come
with the costume barely covered her clit—not that it would stay on long once
they got to the club.

Anybody who looked would be able to see the
base of the plug she’d just put up her ass.

Who’d have thought that she, boring Liz
Wolfe who used to be every guy’s friend but no one’s lover, could attract a hot
Dom like her master? Who’d have thought she would have followed his lead and
taken incredible pleasure from servicing him any time, any place…even in front
of all the members of Buck Oakley’s exclusive BDSM club?

Her master had threatened to share her with
other Doms for her pleasure. When she imagined doing what they’d watched
onstage several times she grew wet with anticipation. Her nipples tightened
against the edges of the cutouts in the bolero and her cunt grew congested,
almost as though she were about to come right now.

She put on red dress cowboy boots and a
long black topcoat and met her master downstairs, but she couldn’t resist
opening the coat and giving him an eyeful of his willing, eager property.

“I hitched us a ride to the club with Bye
and Karen in one of the Bar C’s Cessnas,” he told her when they got in his car.
“I have a surprise in mind for my eager, incredibly hot sex slave and we’ll
need the extra time to set the scene.”

She squeezed his hand but couldn’t quite
keep the apprehension out of her belly at the thought of what Jack had in store
for them.

Jack had never felt so possessive, never
had to fight an urge to keep a sub wrapped in the long black garment that
protected her from lecherous eyes, to drag her out of this melee of sensual
decadence and take her home. He’d never felt the need before, but he’d attached
the gold leash to her collar in the plane and held onto it as he might have
kept a death grip on a lifeline when on a rappelling adventure.

He’d enlisted two other Doms to help take
his beloved slave to another level of pleasure, and he wasn’t backing out, even
though the idea of sharing Liz appalled him as much as it aroused him.
I
know this will give her the ultimate pleasure
, he told himself as he took
in the crowded dungeon with its raucous music and psychedelic light show.

She knelt at his feet, her head bowed as
she awaited his orders. Her collar shone in the open neckline of her coat,
drawing his gaze down to the hasp where he’d attached the leash that sparkled,
lighting its path from his collar to his hand.

Both collar and leash caught the blinding
light from the onstage strobe lights. He was in his jet-black hooded robe, she
in the overcoat he hadn’t yet allowed her to remove to reveal the blood-red
cowgirl costume that had practically made his heart stop when she’d given him a
fleeting glimpse of it before they’d left her house. Having gotten used to
having an eighth of an inch or more of hair on his head over the past month, he
was feeling the heat from the spotlight on a head no longer accustomed to being
mostly shaved, buffed and oiled to a sheen worthy of onstage performances. It
didn’t help that his skin was unusually sensitive from having been shaved less
than two hours earlier.

When the music changed to the hard-driving
rock instrumental he’d chosen, he threw off his robe, revealing that he was
completely naked except for the cock ring that constricted his dick and balls.
The crowd cheered when he tugged on Liz’s leash and she came to her feet, and
when he removed her coat he had to force himself to follow his script when what
he really wanted to do was cover her back up and drag her to one of the private
rooms upstairs where no one else could look at his personal property.

He had trouble remembering his lines. “Suck
my cock, slave.” When she knelt and obeyed his order she opened her cunt so
everyone could see the base of that plug in her ass. And her cunt, so wet it
had soaked the useless G-string. Her rigid, swollen clit poked at the
see-through veil, tempting him almost beyond restraint.

They couldn’t see his tattoo on her mound,
not the way he’d positioned her. That infuriated him until he glanced down and
saw his collar reflecting the light that was scorching his head…and his ring
sparkling where she’d steadied herself by resting her left hand on his outer
thigh. Satisfied now that his ownership was obvious to all, he bent and took
her beautifully responsive nipples between his thumbs and forefingers.

As he watched her service him he felt
rather than seeing his fellow Doms come and stand onstage beside him. He left
one nipple and caught her hair in his hand, controlling her movement as she bobbed
up and down on his naked dick while she played with his tightly constricted
balls.

Remembering the script, Jack nodded toward
the Dom on his left. When he did, the man moved in front of Liz and ripped off
that ridiculous excuse for a G-string. Jack squelched an urge to kill him when
he bent and rimmed her before removing the butt plug and rubbing his
condom-clad dick where his mouth had just been.

She raised her ass the way he’d taught her.
He watched her suck the Dom’s cock into her delightfully tight rear hole. “Suck
me hard. Do your best to make me come.” He grasped both sides of her head and
steadied her for thrusts that soon had her swallowing his cock. Her throat
convulsed around his flesh but he held back. He withdrew from her mouth and
slid beneath her until his head butted up against the balls of the Dom who was
fucking her ass.

“Yesss,” she whimpered when he sucked her
clit between his teeth, but when she became quiet again Jack knew the third Dom
had taken his place and silenced her with his cock.

Jack slid two fingers up her drenched cunt
while he used his other hand to shift the Dom’s balls back and forth in his
scrotum. The Dom didn’t miss a beat fucking Jack’s slave’s ass. He heard Liz
moan and felt her body tremble with the effort it was taking to hold back her
climax. And he felt the third Dom’s body heat when he knelt behind him.

As Jack continued eating her pussy he felt
hands on his ass. Not her hands. The Dom was lifting his hips, shoving a
bolster under his ass. Why the fuck had he agreed to this? He hadn’t
relinquished control for years but he was fucking helpless now. If his
so-called pal decided to ass-fuck him instead of following the script, he
couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

Jack tried hard to concentrate on the
sweet, musky taste of his slave as he felt his legs being spread wide. Heat
from the lights began to cook his shaved groin.

Then he felt rough hands rolling a condom
over his dick, giving his balls a rough squeeze. The Dom laughed as he jerked
the bolster out from under him. Jack relaxed. He’d get the son-of-a-bitch later
for having ad-libbed with the script.

When he felt Liz’s hands on his thighs,
bracing him, he relaxed. Though he couldn’t see, he felt the Dom squat over his
penis and take it up his ass, just as the script had indicated.

It felt good, ass-fucking another guy. Not
nearly as great as he’d remembered.

Jack let the Doms do their thing while he
concentrated on the feast of his love’s arousing honey. “Come for me now, my
darling,” he whispered against her clit, and when she did, she set off a
firestorm that took all three Doms along with her.

* * * * *

“It was a damn good show,” Bye commented
once they were on the way back home, hoping to beat the weather that was
quickly moving in. “You-all had my bride hot as a firecracker before it was
over.”

Jack saw Liz’s cheeks turn scarlet and
realized how much it must embarrass her, hearing her neighbor and former
classmate critique a club performance she’d been a big part of. He was about to
shut his half-brother up when Karen did it for him.

“Cool it, Bye. I don’t think Liz needs to
know right now how their scene affected us or anybody else who was watching.
Pay attention to your flying. It’s getting awfully windy.” Karen made no secret
of being nervous in the twin-engine plane. Jack had heard her say many times
that she hated to fly in anything smaller than a commuter jet, which the Bar C
owned but which couldn’t land on the Neon Lasso’s small airstrip.

When Liz began to look alarmed Jack took
pains to calm her. “We’re okay. Bye may be an asshole but he assured me he’s
logged a lot of hours in this plane. Karen’s got a phobia about flying in
anything this small. But she’s right about the scene, you know.” Jack reached
over to Liz’s seat and took her hand. “The important thing is how it felt to
you.”

She let out a soft sigh. “Incredible,
Master. The only thing I missed was having your cock in my pussy.”

“That will happen as soon as we get home.”
He hadn’t figured out a way to fuck her and eat her cunt at the same time or he’d
have claimed her onstage. “I’m going to wipe every memory of those other Doms
out of your beautiful, sexy mind.”

“Thank you for that scene. It felt
fantastic, but I don’t believe I could survive that much stimulation very
often.”

He laughed and reached over and brushed his
lips across her cheek. He had no desire to repeat a scene that involved anybody
but him and Liz—not in the foreseeable future anyway. He’d never before felt so
fucking possessive that it had damn near killed him to let anybody else touch
her, even in a scene that he’d orchestrated for her pleasure.

Bye coughed as he banked the small plane
and started his descent. “Make sure you’re buckled up back there. Crosswinds
are a little edgy when it’s windy like this, but we’re about to land. Looks as
though we’ve beaten the snowstorm that’s headed our way.”

“We’re ready.” Jack couldn’t get alone with
Liz fast enough. He’d come while he’d fucked the ass of one of the Doms but it
wasn’t the same. He needed to make love to her—just her and nobody else—and
then to hold her while they slept the rest of the night away.

Bye and Karen walked them to Jack’s car
once the plane was shut down and rolled into the hangar. Surprisingly Bye stuck
out his hand when they paused. “You’re welcome to come up to the house for a
nightcap. Life is way too short to hold on to anger—Karen’s convinced me of
that. Are we friends again?”

Jack hesitated for a split second before
taking Bye’s outstretched hand. “Yeah, we’re friends. We’ll take a rain check
on the nightcap, though. I can’t wait to get my fiancée to myself. This will be
our first night together for a week. Between her having to handle Frank
Williams’ work at the ranch and me having a full schedule at the office, we’ve
spent too much time apart since she agreed to wear my ring.”

“I’ll let you off tonight then. Talk to you
soon.” As Bye and Karen walked over to his Porsche roadster, Jack thought he
heard Bye say “Brother”, almost too quietly to be heard over the night wind.

Someday, maybe, they’d recover enough from
the shock of his mother’s spiteful revelation to think of each other that way.
Jack hoped so as he and Liz drove back to the Laughing Wolf—and her bed.