Page 54 of Runaway Hucow

He went on.

“I was about to leave, when they brought the last hucow out on the stage. The little auctioneer said he’d been saving the best for last, and it was the first true thing that little bastard had said all day long. As soon as I saw that final hucow step out onto the stage, something shifted inside me. Those urges I told you about didn’t go away. They just became more focused. I no longer wanted just any hucow. I only wanted one, and I knew I had to have her, no matter what. I knew I had to be smart about it, though. If I’d tried to run up on stage and grab her, I’d have had a hundred guns pointed in my direction. I had to bide my time, wait till the moment was right. I knew that special hucow was being kept in a stable close to the town square, so I figured I’d wait till late that night, when all the men in town were either bedded down in the brothel or too drunk to shoot straight. Then I would spring the hucow, and bring her home with me. But when I finally broke into the stable where she was being kept, the hucow was gone, and the ugly little auctioneer was lying on the ground unconscious.”

He shook his head and grinned. “My little hucow had escaped. I should have known she would. I tried to follow her, but I’ve never been much of a tracker. So instead, I followed a band of bounty hunters, and I found her that way.” He shrugged. “I reckon you know the rest of it.”

For a little while, Tess didn’t say anything. She just looked off into the distance, chewing her lip. Then she scooted closer to Spike.

“Roscoe said you brought me here because you want me to make babies for you. Is that true?”

Ah. So that’s what had been bothering her.

Spike reached into the wagon and pulled the little hucow even closer, until her head was butting lightly against his.

“Tess, I’m going to tell you the truth. I do want to make babies with you. That’s probably not the sort of thing a gentleman ought to be saying to a lady, but I reckon you already know it’s true. I want to breed you and fill you up with my seed and watch your belly grow big and round with my little ones. But only if you want it too.”

“What if I don’t want it…?”

Spike brought his hands up to the hucow’s face. “Then that’s fine by me. Look Tess, if all I wanted was a broodmare to make babies for me, I could have taken any old hucow from Crooked Valley. The reason I rescued you is because I feel a connection with you that I’ve never had with anyone else before. As soon as I saw you, I felt as if I’d found a piece of my soul I didn’t even know was missing.”

He was telling her a lot, maybe too much, but he didn’t care. She wanted to know where he stood with her, so he was telling her.

Her reaction seemed… positive.

She didn’t say anything, she just lifted her mouth up to his and started kissing him. And as that kiss deepened, she started tumbling off the cart toward him, and he had to wrap his arms around her to keep her from falling off the wagon. Then she was wrapping her arms around him too, and her legs as well, and then they were down in the soft grass in the dappled shade of the cottonwood tree, and her dress and petticoats were all bunched up around her waist, and he was on top of her, grinding his bulging arousal against her needful heat while he kissed her, hard and deep.

He was just about to pull her drawers off, when someone whistled from a little ways off. He and Tess both stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction the sound had come from.

It was Peyton. The young minotaur was sauntering toward them with a satchel slung over one shoulder, and his spectacles glinting brightly in the sunlight. His mouth was curved in a cocky smirk.

“Afternoon, you two. Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

CHAPTER 28

Tess was lying on her back in the grass beneath the sprawling shade of a cottonwood tree. She had one big bisonman on top of her, his pelvis nestled between her open legs, and another bisonman was walking toward them with laughter in his bespectacled eyes.

It was not where she had planned on ending up when the day had begun.

But then, a lot had changed since this morning. Tess had woken up feeling uncomfortable about the secret message she’d sent to Shannon Duffy the night before. She’d also been nervous that Peyton might discover what she had done, especially if a reply had come back during the night. That was the reason she’d been so eager to get back to the telegraph machine first thing.

And indeed, a reply had come back. Shannon Duffy had said she was glad to hear Tess was safe, and yes, she could certainly come and get her. She needed one day to prep her personal airship for the flight, and then she would depart. She would arrive at the coordinates Tess had specified in two days’ time.

Tess should have been feeling better after that.

Instead, she’d just felt guilty. She didn’t like going behind Spike’s and Peyton’s backs like that. She didn’t like keeping things from them. But if what Roscoe told her was true, Spike was keeping things from her as well. So, on top of feeling guilty, she was feeling distrustful too.

It was not a fun combination.

The message from Shannon had arrived right before Spike had set out with his wagon load of firewood for the Walkers. Tess had caught up with him and asked to tag along. She wanted to see the Walkers one last time before she left, and she figured that would be her only chance to do so. When the time had come to go back home, Tess had hugged all three of the Walker women so tightly, they’d joked that it was her final farewell. That had almost made Tess start to cry, but somehow she’d held back her tears.

The whole way home, she’d been thinking about what Roscoe had told her yesterday. About how Spike only wanted her for breeding. Then, just a few minutes ago, Spike had poured out his heart to her, and everything had changed.

Tess knew the bisonman had been telling her the truth. She could feel it in his rumbling voice as he’d spoken to her. She could see it in his piercing, dark eyes. She could taste it on his lips as soon as she kissed him. He didn’t want her to be his broodmare. He wanted her to be his mate.

And God help her, but she wanted that too.

Once they got back to the farm, she would send another message to Shannon Duffy to call the whole thing off. The woman would probably be pretty annoyed with her, but at least she wouldn’t have to make the long flight from Arizona up to Colorado. And more importantly, Tess wouldn’t be making the biggest mistake of her life by leaving. All that could wait till later though, when she was back in front of the telegraph machine.

Right now, she had two bisonmen to contend with.