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The tiny town of Swollen Creek was not much more than its whorehouse, store and stable. A few houses were scattered about, but nothing much to speak of. The town was one of those springing up throughout the Midwest offering its few services to the surrounding farmers and ranchers. It might remain there for many years or rapidly disappear into dust and neglect, no more than a forgotten piece of the landscape.
While a handful of farmers found Swollen Creek handy for its general store and stable, those who came to town were mostly there for the girls. It was an unusually warm evening for the season and Miss Mamie’s house was full, bustling with regulars and a few new men who were passing through the region and needed a warm place to sleep—preferably in the arms of a lusty female. Mamie and Hannah were in the kitchen taking a break from all the commotion, drinking coffee.
“Looks like this is gonna be one those nights,” Mamie said. “You’ll get a real taste for what this place is about before you put your head to the pillow.” Hannah had only been in the house little more than a week and Mamie was already used to having her around. She was a loner, but very nice, with some big trouble hanging on her shoulders. Eventually she’d talk about it, they always did. Now she just looked sad and sweet and vulnerable, but very willing to please.
The bell on the front door of the brothel interrupted her thoughts and Mamie shook her head. “Oh, m’lord, I don’t think we have any place for another horny male.” Her red hair was falling from its impressive chignon and looked pleasingly disarrayed about her soft plump face. Despite her apparent weariness, there was also a hint of amusement in her expression as if she would enjoy every minute of the chaos that would likely go on all night. ‘Money in my pocket’, she would say with a whorish smile and a flash of brilliance in her green eyes. “Go see who’s there, will you, Hannah? I’ve just got to take a breather. But don’t you let any man think you’re for sale,” she warned.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Hannah moved from the kitchen, through the hallway, hearing the sounds of laughter in the parlor and a few grunts and groans of squeaky bedsprings from the rooms above. It was a place that stirred her loins and made her blush like a coy virgin. Mamie’s guests were happy here where sex was a playful sport that put smiles on faces, and soothed the terror of a hostile world—if only for a few hours. There would have been a time when she judged this kind of establishment as an evil plight on an otherwise worthy if not austere way of life. But she would not make such judgments now. This was as good a place for her to be as any.
Turning the corner from the hallway into entrance of the house, she raised her head, stuck her chest out as she’d seen Mamie do, and presented herself to the newcomers, proudly representing the kind woman who’d taken her in. The hulking forms of several men in capes and hats were mingling by the door, looking a bit hazy inside a cloud of thick cigar smoke. It was difficult to distinguish one man from another until she got closer. Then two men with their backs to her suddenly pulled aside and between them, staring directly at her was the face of Jarrett Cain.
She pulled up short. Her hand flew to her mouth and her eyes widened.
“So you are here?” he drawled, while smiling broadly. His eye took in her lovely form from head to toe as if it was the first time he’d seen her.
“I’ll get Miss Mamie for you,” she said, and she abruptly turned around.
But Jarrett’s hand was on her arm before she could escape to the kitchen.
“Don’t bother, girl, you’re what I’m after,” he said, stepping forward while drawing her in close.
“I’ll not go anywhere with you.” She shook him off and stepped back. Her heart was beating fast with fear, although a tickle of erotic feeling appeared from nowhere. She hadn’t let her mind think of sex since she left Cain’s ranch, but it seemed primed to now as a deluge of memories returned. He touched her and the remembrance of his hands on her naked body came on her with threatening speed. The warm breath of a virile man was her aphrodisiac. And Jarrett Cain’s scent of smoke and sweat and masculine heat seemed sure to expand the throbbing that had begun between her thighs.
As soon as she shook him off, she felt his long arm capture her again. Just seconds. It had been just seconds and already her spirit was melting into submission. He pushed her into the wall on the far side of the foyer away from the others. His big chest smashed into her heavily breathing one. She was flushed, unready for his advance, and unable to contain a response that seemed naturally bred—if not bred then trained in her.
His lips forced themselves on hers, and rather than push him back with a spiteful glare, she returned the kiss with an open mouth. Her body felt like liquid.
“What’s going on here!” Mamie’s voice broke the mood, though Jarrett did not free his prize.
Mamie took one look at Jarrett Cain and scowled.
“She’s not one of my girls, Jarrett, let her be.”
“Oh, this one’s used to me, Mamie,” his eyes lit quite kindly as he informed her of this fact.
“Oh, she is now?” the woman sashayed forward hands on hips. “Tell me how a man like you’d be any way involved with a sweet young thing like Hannah?”
“You tell him, honey,” Jarrett turned the question to Hannah, who stared at her kindly benefactor in petrified silence. Mamie could see the arousal in the woman’s eyes, the first inkling from her of the raw sensuality that she lived with day to day.
“Jarrett have some hold on you?” she asked her.
“No, Miss Mamie.”
“But you just let him kiss you?”
“We have…uh… he’s been…” Her mind was too confused to work at all and the words were just one mixed-up blur.
All the while, the presence of the man, so close, still touching her with his leg pressed against hers intimately and his body heat pouring through her veins, made the passion in her swell involuntarily, though it was not entirely unwelcome.
“What about your husband?”
“I told you, I have no husband now.” She held up her hand showing the empty ring finger. A painful stab of remorse almost turned her lust-filled eyes to tears, but she held on determinedly. “I know you’re trying to protect me, Mamie,” she said, “but this man knows me as well as any man.”
Mamie turned her head slightly and fixed her with one fierce eye, studying her carefully. “You sayin’ you want him to bed you?”
