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As soon as Nan fell asleep on top of him, Dan shifted her to the side and slid out of bed. He lied when he told her he didn’t need to hear all the details of those days in the basement, and he would never be able to sleep until he filled in the gaps. Snatching up his jeans, he padded out of the bedroom, pulled them on and moved quietly downstairs and out onto the front porch. The rain still fell in a steady torrent and blew a light mist over his face and chest, but the cool dampness did nothing to smolder the heat of his anger.
He still had her brother’s phone number from when he’d spoken with Jay after Nan quit answering his and everyone else’s calls and texts. Disregarding the late hour, he sat down on the porch swing and pulled out his phone. Jay answered on the third ring, his irritable voice coming through loud and clear in Dan’s ear.
“Do you know what the hell time it is? Who is this?”
“Dan Shylock, and yes, I know what time it is. I’m calling about Nan.”
“What’s wrong? Is my sister all right?”
Dan rushed to reassure him before getting right to the point. “She’s fine, sound asleep…” He paused before ensuring there were no misconceptions by saying bluntly, “In my bed.”
“And you woke me at one o’clock to tell me that why?”
If Dan didn’t know how close the siblings were, and didn’t have Jay to thank for rescuing Nan, he would be worried about the silken note of menace in Jay’s voice. “Because I care, a lot.” And he was just now starting to realize what an understatement that was. “And because I’ve been helping her get over what happened to her in New Orleans, but I need to know more. Why is she so afraid of the dark?”
The rustling of sheets and low cursing resonated through the line before Jay replied, “She should be telling you herself, but since I know how stubborn Nan can be, and how she thinks she can get over those days on her own, I’ll not only tell you, I’ll send you pictures. You show them to anyone else and I’ll come up there and yank your balls out through your throat. Are we clear?”
Dan winced, but understood where the o
ther man was coming from. “Understood.”
A jagged streak of white lightning split the black sky as Jay said, “We found her in a soundproof, locked room in the cellar, where he’d left her in the pitch black for three days. I am only going to forward three pictures, which will be shown at his trial. And I intend to talk to my sister tomorrow, Shylock, so you damn well better not be leaving anything out.”
“I’m not,” he murmured into the dead phone. Dan supposed he ought to be grateful Jay agreed to talk to him at all. The pictures came through seconds later, and his blood turned to ice. The one of her head and face, of the broken capillaries on her cheeks, her black, swollen eye, her blood-matted hair, shook him to the core. Fury built, threatening his composure as he scanned the mottled red and purple bruising along her ribs and abdomen, the split skin down her back.
Dan stabbed the delete button, erasing the images that would be forever seared into his brain. The desire to curb his rage with a six pack was quickly suppressed as he gazed out at the storm-lit sky. He knew from working with addicts who also had suffered trauma, like Pete, there was no escaping or erasing certain images through substance abuse, they would be there tomorrow regardless of what he did tonight.
What he did now, how he moved forward with Nan, depended on her. She had made leaps and bounds tonight at the club, surprising him, and he thought, maybe herself as well. But lapses were inevitable, and pushing for more too soon, could be more harmful than good. Unless she ended their bargain because she’d fulfilled her end of it by climaxing under his hand, and his body, he would let her set the pace for the next step. After having her again, he just hoped he could drum up the patience to go slow, if that was what she wanted and needed. Since he already ached to feel her slick cream bathing his cock as she squeezed another climax out of him, it sure as hell wouldn’t be easy.
Nan roused from the most restful night she’d enjoyed in months, blinking her eyes open to note the time on Dan’s bedside alarm. Crawling out of his warm, comfortable bed, she was grateful she didn’t have to answer to a boss other than herself. That meant she could open up fifteen minutes late without anyone berating her. Still, she didn’t like disappointing her customers, and there were a few who were already addicted to the gourmet coffees she’d added to the menu and showed up first thing every morning for their flavored caffeine fix.
As she picked up her clothes off the chair wondering where Dan was, soreness from the previous night’s excesses made itself known with every move. Her vagina and rectum ached with each step into the bathroom and her skin still appeared flushed, her breasts tender to the touch as she soaped up in the shower. By the time she finished and dried off, she had no desire to add to her lingering discomfort by donning the tight corset again. Slipping the thong on, she wrapped the dress around her, enjoying the sway of her unfettered breasts as she skipped downstairs.
Nan caught sight of Dan out the glass front door, standing with Pete near her car. With his black Stetson obscuring a good portion of his face, she couldn’t read his expression, but damn, he looked good in tight jeans and a worn, button-up work shirt with the sleeves rolled up to reveal the corded muscles of his forearms. Standing with his scuffed up, cowboy booted feet apart, he frowned as he looked down at the malnourished, scrawny kitten Pete held cradled in his hands. Her heart executed a slow roll as Dan reached out one finger and brushed the poor kitten’s head in a compassionate caress; the same way he’d touched her last night as she’d spoken about Gerard’s abuse.
She didn’t know where the two of them went from here, but if the slow warmth spreading through her body and the tightness around her chest were any signs, she knew she wasn’t ready for whatever this was between them now to end. There would be time to go back to their old relationships, enjoying each other at the club on occasion and socializing as friends outside of those evenings. Still, she would leave it up to him, she decided, stepping outside and drawing their attention away from the pitiful cat.
“Who do you have there, Pete? Poor thing looks as if she’s lived a sad life so far.”
“I saw a coyote stalking her behind the barracks last night and chased him away. Some food and attention and she’ll be fine,” he said, his eyes softening as he gazed down at the pathetic feline. “That is, if I can talk the boss into letting me keep her.”
Scowling, Nan took up Pete’s side. “Look at that face. Let him keep her and nurse her back to health.”
“Do you know how many animals this makes he’s adopted?” Dan shook his head, a grin curling his mouth. “But he was just putting you on, hon. Of course he can keep the cat. But,” he turned a serious look upon his hired hand, “the squirrel’s tail has healed. Turn that damned rodent loose or I will.”
Pete chuckled, his face appearing younger and less strained as he smirked. “I already did this morning. As soon as I finish the chores, I’ll take her to the vet in Billings and get her checked over.” Nodding at Nan, he said politely, “Nice to see you again, ma’am.”
Shaking her head, she waited until Pete was out of earshot before saying, “I’ve asked him to quit ma’aming me. I can’t be that much older than him.”
“You’re not, it’s the military background, and his own sense of courtesy.” Dan eyed her with one of his probing gazes before asking, “How are you this morning?”
“Other than sore, I feel great. Thank you for the good night’s sleep.”
Taking her elbow, he steered her to her car and opened the door. “Come back this evening and let’s see if we can make it two in a row. We’ll stay in, order pizza, and I can see how rusty your pool skills are.”
Her heart soaring, Nan beamed up at him as she settled behind the wheel. “You’re on. Double pepperoni and I should make it by six or seven.”
He nodded, tipped his hat and strode toward the stables, leaving her to drive back to town with butterflies tickling her abdomen and a feverish expectation humming through her veins.
