Logan Leigh sat on his midnight-black stallion and gazed down into the early morning frost-covered valley below. A lone spiral of gray smoke drifted from one of the several rock chimneys of an old white clapboard, two-story farmhouse, and to his surprise, an unusual warmth sifted through him. Coming to this place felt like he was coming home. Weird that he would think that way of this valley nestled in the Rocky Mountain foothills of Alberta, Canada, a place he’d never seen before, but that’s what he felt.
The warmth of the sight urged him to hurry up and ride down there, but he knew the dangers for a man on the run. He needed to keep an eye on the place and make sure there were no surprises when he rode in. Aside from laundry fluttering in the cold breeze on the line, there appeared to be no sign of movement. Past experience, however, cautioned him that looks could be deceiving.
Members of the gang he rode with had told him a pleasure girl lived alone down there, and despite the insistent hardening of his cock at finally having some female companionship, he knew he’d have to force himself to sit up here a while longer until he was sure they wouldn’t be interrupted by a posse.
Then he’d ride in.
It was getting dark fast, and she needed to get cleaned up at the water pump and grab her laundry off the line before it got too creepy out here, Teyla Sutton thought as she struggled to close the damaged greenhouse door. The darned hinges had been ripped off several weeks ago during a violent wind storm, and the plate glass door was so heavy she could barely move it, but she knew getting the door into the proper position would keep the heat from escaping the building, and so she struggled with it until it gave a good closed fit.
Wiping a bead of perspiration off her forehead, she wrapped her thick wool cardigan tighter around her and headed into the chilly wind toward the water pump in the middle of her farmyard. She’d been working inside her greenhouse for most of the day, planting a new crop of carrots and Boston lettuce, weeding and watering the rest of the plants, and enjoying the moist warmth, compliments of the southern exposure of the building as well as the solar heating.
But out here in the gloomy evening, it was a different story. Since the Catastrophe over four years ago, the weather had turned cold. Sure, the sun continued to shine during the day, but it just wasn’t warm enough to grow most crops or any flowers anymore.
Since the weather had turned bad, she’d had to make do without pretty much everything. Food at the store in town was priced out of her reach, so she’d turned to growing her own food in the greenhouse. She fished or hunted her meat and got her water supply from the well. For her, there was nothing but healthy organic living these days, and she was lean, thin, and healthy because of it.
But boy, she could kill for a large double-double coffee and a plate full of apple fritter doughnuts about now. As if her tummy knew exactly what she was thinking, it growled in protest, the spooky sound sending another volley of shivers up her spine, making her think of a growling grizzly bear ready to pounce on her from behind the nearby pine trees, encouraging her to pick up her pace.
She didn’t like being outside when it got dark. Every shadow became a potential murderer, and every sound became a pack of wild dogs that could be lying in wait, ready to rip her throat out and dine on her. Despite the spooky shivers racing up her spine at her vivid, overworking imagination, Teyla forced herself to smile at her silliness.
She’d been lucky since the Catastrophe. She didn’t get unexpected visitors because most humans had been killed, disintegrated actually, compliments of the solar flares. Many of the survivors tended to live in what was left of the cities and didn’t really bother with her, way out here in the foothills. She had, however, heard rumors of cannibal gangs roaming around killing and eating people because meat was just simply too expensive for the average person. Those cannibals stayed mainly in the populated areas where the food, so to speak, was more accessible.
At the pump, she quickly pushed the squeaky handle up and down until the cold water splashed out. Grabbing the bar of homemade lye soap she kept beneath a tin cup, she hurriedly washed her hands and face, shivering in the cold breeze. Thrusting a bucket beneath the pump, she filled it with water. Once she got inside, she’d get the fire roaring at the woodstove and wash herself more intimately with warm water. Yes, she had solar water heating in her farmhouse, but she preferred to use it only when absolutely necessary. She knew if her solar parts broke down, they would be too expensive to replace or even get, for that matter. So she tended to play pioneer with her water, lugging buckets and heating her water on her kitchen woodstove.
She was about to lift the full bucket when a jolt of alarm ripped through her, stopping her cold. At the sound of a horse neighing, her head snapped up, and shock and fear cracked through her as she saw a big, dark-haired man wearing a black leather jacket and tight blue jeans quietly leading a black horse into her yard not more than forty feet away.
Oh, darn! Why hadn’t she seen him coming?
She forced herself to remain as calm as possible. Forced herself not to make any fast moves in case he went for the rifle in his scabbard. But her fingers sure did ache to reach for the gun sitting heavy and loaded in her cardigan pocket.
“Can I help you?” she called out, wishing her heart wasn’t pounding so violently against her chest.
“Mrs. Teyla Sutton?” he asked. He spoke quietly, as if trying not to spook her, but damned if she wasn’t ready to either run for the farmhouse or start shooting at him.
“That’s right,” she answered, cursing herself for the shakiness in her voice. Okay, so he knew her name. That was a good sign, wasn’t it?
“Your neighbor, Dr. Elizabeth Brandywine, sent me. I’d like to purchase your services for a couple of days.”
Her services. Despite the cold air lashing her face, her cheeks went warm. Why in the world would Liz send a stranger to her? Teyla preferred to service only men she knew. Men from town. She had no idea who this guy was.
“She said you might also accommodate my two friends.”
Her breath backed up in her lungs. Two friends? And him?
“I don’t accommodate strangers. I’m sorry.”
“She’s already inspected me, if that’s what has you worried. My friends will be here tomorrow.”
Teyla shook her head, fear starting to really grab hold now. What if he got violent for refusing him? Why in God’s name would Liz send her a complete stranger?
“She gave me this note to give to you. It gives me a clean bill of health,” he said. She tensed as he took a couple steps forward and handed her a sealed envelope, and when he did, she didn’t miss how large his hands looked or how long his fingers were. They were clean, his nails clipped. It was a good sign and showed the man took care of himself.
Opening the envelope, she relaxed as Dr. Liz’s delicate scent whispered off the page and her handwriting explained that she’d done a physical on him, and that he appeared clean and he came recommended by a trusted friend.
“A letter of introduction, I would assume?” He grinned down at her and Teyla’s tummy flip-flopped quite nicely at the man’s succulent smile.
“She says she knows a friend of yours. I don’t normally service men I don’t know, so this doesn’t make me eager to take you on as a client. Mr…?”
“Logan Leigh,” he offered. “I’m from the States. Crossed the border a few days ago.” His smile widened, and it reached his dark brown eyes, making them sparkle with amusement and heat. That heat had her thinking sex with this guy might be worth breaking her usual rules.
“Before you give me your final decision I want to say I’ll give you five times your rate for doing my two friends and myself.”
Her eyes widened at his generosity. With that amount, she could buy those pickling seeds, mason jars, and pickling salt she’d been dying to get and down her beets and cucumbers when they were ready. Not to mention pay off several months of her mortgage. But have sex with a stranger? And two others?
She swallowed at the nervousness shifting through her. But all her clients had been strangers in the beginning.
Confidence edged away her fear. Liz had sent along a letter of reference and stated he was in good health. Teyla needed the money, and having sex with men was her job. So why in the world was she hesitating? Because it was too unexpected and he looked too damned sexy, that’s why, that inner voice whispered again.
Sighing in resignation, she nodded to her pump.
“You can wash up here. Give me about fifteen minutes, then come in. The bedroom is at the back of the house, just off the kitchen. Please leave your weapons in the kitchen, and I need to have half the money up front.” “My horse?”
“You can put him in the barn to protect him from the coyotes. There’s some feed in the bags left over from my horse. It should still be good.”
She didn’t explain her only horse was dead and buried just last week. None of his business that she didn’t have any sort of transportation anymore. She grabbed her bucket and started toward the house, hoping he wouldn’t pull out a gun and shoot her in the arm, or worse. His next words stopped her cold.
“We haven’t discussed the terms yet,” he said softly.
She tensed, placed the bucket on the ground, and turned around again, ready to grab her pistol from her pocket if need be.
“I do anal, oral, and vaginal. Condoms are a must. No kissing on the mouth,” she said, trying hard to keep the huskiness out of her voice. God, just talking sex with this guy was kind of exciting.
“Bondage. I want to do some bondage on you, plus you’ll have to accept three men doing you at the same time, or there’s no deal.”
Three men at the same time! She’d never done that before.
Before she could mount a protest, he held up a hand.
“We want access to all of you whenever we want for tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night. You’ll get half your money up front. The other half at the end of the second night. You’ll wear no bra while we are here. You’ll dress the way I want you to dress. The first night is just us then tomorrow and tomorrow night will be the four of us. The next morning we’ll be gone. Is that acceptable to you?”
Teyla couldn’t believe how warm her cheeks had gotten at what he’d said or how nervous she’d become, too.
She’d never agree to bondage. They could tie her up and slit her throat or torture her and she wouldn’t be able to defend herself.
“No bondage. No pain,” she said firmly
“No pain, and only your wrists bound. Your legs will be free, Mrs. Sutton.”
“Yeah, like that’ll help me if I need to fight you off.”
“You’ll be too busy fighting the pleasure.”
She blinked at the sultry way his deep, gravelly voice whispered through her.
His smile dropped into a serious frown. “Mrs. Sutton, if I wanted to harm you, I would have done it early this morning when I first saw you hanging up your laundry.”
“Maybe you need an audience,” she replied tartly, feeling spooked at the thought he’d been lurking around here all day, watching her, and she hadn’t even noticed.
“I enjoy watching a woman get fucked, and I enjoy an audience when I’m taking a woman.”
He certainly got to the point, didn’t he?
If Liz sent him to her, then Teyla would have to trust he wouldn’t hurt her. She just wished Liz could have come herself with the guy and made the introduction. She shook away those thoughts. She was acting like a child. This would simply be a business transaction. No emotions. Just like all her other clients.
“We’ll see,” she said, and she noticed the heat flare again in his brown eyes. She’d expected an argument, but he seemed pleased with her answer.
“I want you to wear what’s inside this package.” He held out a linen-wrapped item which she reluctantly accepted.
“I want you wearing it and sitting on your bed, waiting for me.”
She nodded. Without another word, he turned away, grabbed the reins of his horse, and walked toward the barn.
You’ll be too busy fighting the pleasure. Oh my gosh, had he really said that? My, oh my, he was a confident one in his abilities, wasn’t he? None of the men she’d serviced had made her feel anything. She just went through the motions and pretended she enjoyed the sex. It would be the same with this guy, she thought as on strangely trembling legs, she headed for her farmhouse, walking a little bit too quickly for her comfort.
After bedding his horse in the barn, Logan grabbed one of his saddlebags, emptied out the money, counted half the amount he promised, and stuffed it into an empty feed sack. He eyed the interior of the barn for a good hiding place for the rest of the money and decided on putting it into the hayloft on the second floor. After the money was secure, he grabbed one of his saddlebags and the feed sack with her money in it then headed out to the water pump where, to his surprise, he found a folded towel, face cloth, and a new bar of soap. The woman must have gotten the supplies while he was in the barn.
He gazed at the farmhouse and was pleasantly amused to catch sight of the woman studying him from one of the lower-floor windows. He grinned and waved, enjoying how quickly she disappeared after being caught watching him.
She was definitely the cutest pleasure girl he’d come across. She wore her auburn hair in one thick braid that went down to her mid-back. Her short bangs had been brushed messily to the sides as if she’d been wiping her hair back off her forehead through the day. She looked to be just about as tall as he and as old as his thirty-three years. Her eyes were dark brown, and her lips were full and very kissable-looking. And he swore she’d blushed in the twilight while discussing the terms of their arrangement.
What was up with that? A pleasure girl blushing? Dr. Liz had assured him this woman had been in the business for at least a couple of years and would most likely accommodate him and his friends.
Well, whatever the blushing was about, she’d agreed to some of his terms. Now all he needed to do was wash up. As he grabbed the handle of the pump, he couldn’t stop but gaze around at his surroundings. Shadows were dropping throughout the yard as the golden sun dipped past the snow-capped mountains to the west.
While he was keeping an eye on the place during the day, he’d noticed the barn roof needed reshingling, saw that some of the fences were down, and the rusty windmill squeaked with every gust of wind.
Now, upon closer inspection, he noticed she was struggling just to survive out here. The farmhouse looked in relatively good shape, but it could use a coat of white paint, and a couple of blue shutters needed to fixed before they fell off, plus the farm equipment as well as the truck were covered in dust. He understood why, too. The solar flares had fried most vehicles’ systems, and those that had been fixable needed gasoline. Unfortunately, these days, gasoline was hard to come by.
The Catastrophe had fried the entire world’s electrical grids, the solar flares short-circuiting pretty much everything from nuclear plants to the Internet. He’d heard of the odd nuclear plant melting down Stateside. Realized he’d probably been exposed to radiation fallout. So, maybe his healthy days were numbered, but it was all out of his control, so he just took life one day at a time.
Understandably, it was taking a long time to train survivors as replacement workers for the various factories that made parts needed to get the coal plants, nuclear plants, and other electricity producers up and running again. The lack of electricity had thrown cities, towns, and villages into the dark ages. Looting was rampant. Prices for food and water were skyrocketing.
It seemed everybody that had the ability to make a buck had no problem exploiting the people who needed help. He didn’t like what had happened to humankind. Didn’t like what he’d become, either. Wasn’t proud of the kind of work he had to do in order to help the less fortunate. Unfortunately, his work was illegal and now he was a wanted man.
He inhaled sharply as cold water dashed onto his hand. Fuck! But it was like ice! How in the world had she been able to wash her hands and face earlier? Hell, if she could do it, so could he. Determination made him pump harder. Grabbing a nearby basin, he filled it with water and dumped the wash cloth in.
Removing his jacket, sweater, and T-shirt, he shivered in the cold air, inhaling and cursing as he slapped the wet washcloth and bar of soap against his skin and began washing himself. It was the middle of June, and it felt like a mild winter day.
Cold weather year-round. It was another drawback of the Catastrophe. The weather had changed worldwide. They were calling it the Little Ice Age, compliments of the lack of sunspots, which, after the explosion of solar flares burned out those sunspots that gave the Earth its added heat, had lowered temperatures on Earth. So much for the greenhouse effect.
Logan frowned and reached for the towel. He didn’t want to think about the Catastrophe and what happened right after. That dark time had changed him and made him bitter. He did, however, want to think about that sexy piece of lady in that farmhouse. Right now, she was the one bright spot for him over the next couple of days. He would lose himself inside her.
At the thought of all the sweet things he would do to her tonight, his cock hardened. He was going to enjoy taking her. Enjoy it a lot.
Teyla was trembling as she slowly moved to the bedroom window again. He’d seen her watching him earlier, and getting caught had sent the oddest tingles of excitement through her. There was something about him that made her breathless, but in a good way. Something that made her want to watch him. Maybe because now that she was a little less freaked out by his sudden appearance, she realized he was the handsomest guy she’d seen in a long time. Or perhaps because that smile of his when he’d caught her spying on him made her feel so happy-giddy. Made her believe he wouldn’t hurt her.
She peeked out and watched him as he washed his upper torso in the twilight. Muscles rippled across his shoulders and arms as he soaped his hairy chest. He was a big man, she thought as she licked her suddenly dry lips. A very tall man. And he wanted her services.
She hadn’t slept with a stranger since first starting out as a pleasure girl more than two years ago. And even those men had been familiar to her. She knew them from church or church gatherings or from the hardware or grocery store. Some had been friends of her husband. Some just acquaintances. Those had been the lucky ones who hadn’t disintegrated, just like her. Sometimes, though, she wondered who exactly had been lucky. The ones who’d gone poof in a second to ash or the ones left behind to mourn and struggle?
She blew out a tense breath as she watched the newcomer’s hand draw toward the clasp on his jeans. His head snapped up, and before she could move away from the window, his gaze captured hers again. Once again, the wicked tingles zipped through her at getting caught, and that cute smile of his as he looked at her made her cheeks grow totally hot.
Chastising herself for being a peeping Thomasina, she moved away from the window. She needed to hurry and get ready. Rushing back into the kitchen to the woodstove where she’d left some water to warm, she grabbed the pot and headed back into her bedroom. She’d wash up in a minute. First, she wanted to take another peek at Dr. Liz’s note.
Liz said he was a friend of a trusted friend who vouched for him and he was looking for her services. Liz explained she’d given him the required physical exam and gave him a clean bill of health. Because Teyla had been so flustered at the stranger, she hadn’t read the rest of the note explaining to her that Dr. Liz would also give his two friends physicals, too, when they showed up and would send along another letter. It was the last sentence that totally caught her attention. Liz asked her to let her know if size really did matter.
Goodness, couldn’t Liz have been more specific than that? Size meaning he was too small? Too big? Too long? What?
Dammit! As if her heart wasn’t racing now at the thought of finding out. She glanced out the window again, and a very erratic butterfly feeling splashed through her lower belly upon discovering he was now totally naked. While washing his lower half, he’d turned his back to her, revealing a very cute ass. She hoped he hadn’t been offended at her gesture of leaving the soap and other items out for him, but he’d looked dusty and she figured he’d like to wash up before…
Oh, lord, Teyla! Stop delaying.
She really needed to hurry and get herself ready. Ripping her gaze from him, she quickly lit some of her oil lamps on the shelves in her room, undressed and washed herself, and gave her wrists and neck a few delicate squirts of her precious perfume.
Then she opened the package he’d given her and gulped at the gorgeous white lace material. It looked beautiful, she thought as she lifted it up and gazed at it. It was sexy. Smashing. He’d given her a sheer floor-length negligee set. By the fresh smell and look of it, it was brand new.
Whispering the delicate material through her fingers, she moaned at the silky softness. She hadn’t touched something this soft in years. She also noticed the side slit would reveal her left leg and hip. A thong panty accompanied the garment, too. The panty had a large hole in the middle, allowing him access to her…
Another shot of warmth into her cheeks made her swear softly beneath her breath. Oh, boy. Could she go through with this? Could she let a complete stranger have sex with her? Share her? She should be running in the other direction, not getting all these mixed emotions raging through her. Want, need, a craving to be loved.
Slipping on the panty, she sighed at the velvety feel against her skin, then moaned as she put on the negligee. It melted against her curves like liquid milk. Admiring the garment’s beauty in the mirror, Teyla smiled. It looked awesome.
The top clung to her breasts like a glove, illuminating them, making them look bigger, and the waist was gathered, making it appear narrower than it really was. The lower part shimmered like ribbons of silk over her hips and legs.
Having something new made her feel almost normal again.
She jumped as a noise at the side of the house snapped her back to reality. He was coming! The sound of stomping feet ascending the outside stairs and crossing the wraparound veranda planked floor had her biting her bottom lip with a sudden bout of anxiety. A quick knock and a creak of the screen door followed by the sound of the other door opening had Teyla hurrying to sit on the bed. Normally, she climbed naked under the covers and waited for her clients that way, but this man was different. He’d given her something to wear, and he would like to see it on her.
Her anxiety mounted, and she clasped her hands into her lap as she heard him enter her home. Her sanctuary.