A Diamond in the Dark (14 page)

“Watch who ya speaking to, boy.” The force of Jack getting up from the table sent his chair toppling over, crashing to the wooden floor behind him. Ax copied the movement, their faces coming close together.

“No, you watch who the fuck you’re talking to. You forget, Jack, I’m not one of your fucking kids. So,
brother
, when I tell you to back the fuck off, ya back the fuck off!”

Things had been pretty tense between him and Jack since then. They were being civil and all, just not friendly. Ax had no idea how to fix the problem either. It had been a stupid argument, but Ax couldn’t think of a way to apologize for his outburst without telling Jack about him and Tia. He wasn’t ready for that yet.

Looking at the time, he quickened his pace, needing to head into town to grab a few things for what he had planned.

* * * *

Tia had woken feeling great, although she had hated Ax leaving her bed. Her body was still in a state of euphoria, blissfully tingling away. Axton’s scent clung to her pillow. She rubbed her face against it like a kitten, his smell making her pussy leak cream.

A quick, self-induced orgasm later, she headed into town for her regular Saturday brunch with the girls.

She was running a good half hour early when she pulled into Pickles, the only diner in Lewisville. They served a mean breakfast burrito, with a pickle of course. Everything was served with one. A lovely lady named Kelsey now ran the diner. She was the great-granddaughter of old man Prickles, who happened to do his own pickling. Their slogan use to be ‘Prickles pickles tickles your tonsils’, but that didn’t go down too well with the old-timers in town, so it was lost in Lewisville history.

Instead of heading straight into the diner, Tia walked down Main Street, doing a little window-shopping, taking in the sights and sounds of the small town she loved. It was the reflection in the shop window that stopped her from screaming when two muscled arms wrapped around her. The large erection stabbing into her back indicated that Axton was happy to see her.

“Someone could see us,” she pointed out. Stepping out of his grasp, but still watching his reflection, she giggled as he quickly untucked his shirt to cover the bulging erection trying to push its way through his denim jeans.

“Didn’t even think of that. I lose my head when I’m around you, woman.”

Turning from him, Tia continued her walk down Main Street, Axton falling in step beside her. She held her hands tightly together to suppress the urge to reach for him.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. “I was about to phone you. What are you doing in town anyway?”

“Meeting up with the girls. We have brunch most Saturdays. I’m a little early, they won’t be there for another twenty minutes. What were you going to call me about?” She couldn’t look at him, otherwise she’d want to climb him like a tree, an urge she felt every time she was near him.

“Oh. Yeah, I was going to see if you would come over for dinner tonight. Spend the night at my place?” He sounded like he wasn’t sure if she would say yes. The thought that he had any doubts about her wanting to be with him brought a small smile to her lips.

“I would love to, Axton. What time do you want me to head…” She hadn’t even noticed they’d walked around the block until they walked past an alley at the back of the diner. Tia looked up at Ax, but he wasn’t beside her.

Turning around, she spotted him standing a little way back, hidden from the street. She could see the hunger in his eyes, and it sent shivers through her, knowing it was for her. Unable to help herself, Tia ran back to him. Axton opened his arms for her and lifted her up his body as their mouths clashed in a fight for dominance.

Tia felt the coarse surface at her back as he pushed her against the brick facade. Her hands went to work on his shirt buttons, fingers trembling from the desire to touch his skin. Cool air hit her pussy at the same time the smell of her own desire reached her nose.

Those thick, callused fingers rimmed her opening. Teasing her with want. Finally impaling her pussy with his talented digits, Ax swallowed her scream of appreciation. She worked her hands between their bodies to get to what she needed most. One button undone, just a few more to go. As she undid the second button, Ax hit that sweet spot inside her. Unable to breathe Tia had no choice but to release his mouth.

His fingers kept up their maddening pace. Ax pushed her hand out of the way, his own taking over her attempt to release his cock from its confines, she heard a button pinging as it hit the concrete beneath his feet. There was no delicacy about this coupling, it was raw, hard fucking. She whimpered as he removed his fingers, only to moan in satisfaction as he replaced them with his much thicker cock.

His tongue mimicked the actions of his dick. The sound of flesh slapping against flesh drowned out the faint sound of traffic moving along Main Street. Their pace quickened, becoming impossibly fast. When he lifted his lips from hers, she bit into his shoulder to stop the scream that was bubbling up her throat. The climax started at the tips of her toes, working its way up her body then down to her center. Every muscle seized as pure white bliss overtook her.

Wheezing oxygen into her lungs brought her focus back. Eyes that had been glazed over, unseeing anything but Axton, became aware of another presence. Jimmy Doland standing with his back against the opposite wall. The pumping blood finally leaving her ears, she now heard the clapping of the smarmy grinning Jimmy.
Shit.

“Ax,” she whispered.

* * * *

Christ, he’d fucked her in an alley. He was friggin’ thirty-six, not sixteen.

“Ax.”

Lifting his head from her shoulder where he’d rested it to catch his breath, he caught sight of the unadulterated fear in her eyes. Panic hit him with the force of a freight train. Had he hurt her? His airways froze from the strength of the emotion as he watched her eyes. She wouldn’t look at him; she was looking over his shoulder. Fuck, she couldn’t even look him in the eyes.

“Well, y’all, it’s not every day you get to see a real live porn show on Main Street,” came a voice from behind him. “But it’s a bit sick when you’re all related.”

Ax could hear the venom in that voice, just couldn’t place who it was. Before he had a chance to say anything, Tia did.

“We’re not related, Jimmy.”

Fuck, Jimmy Doland.
Slowly, he lifted Tia off his dick. It was the first time in a week it had been completely soft. He made sure that Jimmy couldn’t see her as they put their clothes to rights, his movements methodical. Tia must have sensed the fury in him, because she placed her small hand on his cheek and shook her head. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face Jimmy.

“Tia’s right, Jimmy. We’re not related,” Ax said, staring down at the little piss-ant in front of him. Jimmy had been barking at Ax since before he’d given him some new teeth.

He was always going on about Axton’s pa stealing from his granddaddy. It was a fucking bull that Jimmy’s granddaddy couldn’t afford to buy at the time, but Ax’s pa could. As far as Ax was aware, there had been no bad blood between the older men while they both lived. And when Doland Senior could afford it, his pa had no problems with letting him breed that bull. Yeah, it had been a prize-winning bull, and so had most of his offspring, but still… Ax just couldn’t see the issue.

It was always the same.
If your pa hadn’t…blah, blah, blah.
Christ, that had happened before Axton was even born, so what did it have to do with him, or Jimmy for that matter?

“Well, you all have lived together since she was little,” Jimmy said, spitting on the pavement as he pushed off the wall to come closer.

“What’s that got to do with anything? Our cook has lived with us for damn near fifteen years, does that make her family?”

“It’s just not right is all. Let’s not forget that you’re old enough to be her father!”

Christ, he’d been fourteen when Tia was born, having just moved in with Jack after the death of their parents. At that point in his life, the only thing Ax had been thinking about was getting through each day. Having loving parents one day, and them being gone the next, had been hard. Having his brother step into that role had been even harder. It may’ve been only two years later that he actually lost his virginity, but at fourteen the last thing on his mind had been girls.

Ax pinched the bridge of his nose. This was the problem when you argued with idiots—you seemed to go around and around, never accomplishing anything. “What the hell do you want, Jimmy?”

“How ’bout you showing me some respect for a change! You’ve always thought you’re so high-and-mighty. Now I know why you attacked me all those years ago.” Jimmy was standing there looking smug, hands in his pockets, leaning back on his heels. With a big smile on his face, he tilted his head as if thinking of something. “How’s it feel, Ax, to know I was the first one to touch that pussy?”

If it hadn’t been for Tia latching onto his arm, his fist would have connected with Jimmy’s teeth again.

“Jimmy, you have no right to say shit like that. And if you must know, having your hands down my panties did nothing for me,” Tia answered, still not letting go of his arm.

“Look here, darling, you weren’t complaining that night.”

“There was nothing to say at the time. You had barely touched me before Ax showed up. We’ve never had a problem, Jimmy. Why are you starting shit now?” Tia asked.

“Maybe because I still want you, and up until now I thought there may have been a chance that you would come back to me,” Jimmy said as he put his hands in his back pockets, pushing his chest out.

Ax just watched as Tia almost fell over laughing. By the look on Jimmy’s face, there was nothing sincere in his last statement. Jimmy wasn’t a bad-looking guy, and Ax had seen him out enough times with women to know that he wasn’t pining away after Tia.

“What the fuck are you laughing at?” Jimmy screamed at Tia.

Again, she grabbed Axton’s arm to stop him from hitting Jimmy.

“Jimmy, we have seen each other hundreds of times since that night. You have never given any indication that you wanted me for more than a notch in your bedpost. So give it a rest,” Tia said, with a certainty in her voice that Axton wasn’t expecting, although he had picked up the same fact just from Jimmy’s expression. Ax had to keep reminding himself that even though he was Tia’s first, and would be her last, lover she wasn’t naive by any means.

“Well, it looks like things have changed. You’ll fuck your own uncle. Maybe now that you’re the town slut—”

Ax broke free of Tia’s hold, an overwhelming surge of protectiveness hitting him with a force that was so insurmountable, it was scary. He didn’t remember moving, but all of a sudden his hands were wrapped around Jimmy’s throat, Jimmy’s back pressed against the wall, his feet hovering above the ground.

Jimmy’s face turned purple, but Ax just felt detached, standing there watching him gasp for breath. He didn’t care if the little fucker died at that moment. For the first time in his life, he wanted to kill another human being. Tia was his, and no one had the right to say anything bad about her...ever.

* * * *

Tia worked her way between the two men. The look in Axton’s eyes frightened her. She’d never seen that look on a man before. It was clearly the sight of a man on the edge of his sanity, and willing to do whatever was needed to protect what he thought was his. The idea of him seeing her as
his
made her heart flutter, but there was no time for her to think further of it. She needed to stop Ax from committing murder.

Once she had worked herself between them, Ax finally let go of Jimmy’s throat. He was breathing hard. Pushing him back a step, she turned in his arms, trusting Axton not to hurt her or to inflame the situation. However, she didn’t trust Jimmy, so she turned to face the little weasel, pushing her back up against Axton, hoping the physical contact would sooth them both.

Axton’s arms banded around her tightly, making her feel like she was being crushed by warm, flesh-covered steel. It made it a little difficult to breathe, but Tia didn’t want to tell him to loosen his grip while he was getting himself together.

Jimmy collapsed to the ground, the color slowly draining from his face as he tried to suck air back into his lungs. Reaching behind herself, she ran her hands up and down Axton’s thighs, calming him as much as she could with her touch. Trying to push him back further from the prone Jimmy was a useless effort. She would have had better luck moving a brick wall.

It seemed like hours, but was only minutes, before Tia finally felt the tension start to leave Axton’s body. His face was buried in her neck, his warm breath steadily evening out. His arms loosened enough to allow her to take a full breath.

She never took her eyes off Jimmy. Her own anger hadn’t lessened from the idiot’s remarks. Yes, getting caught fucking a man in an alley wasn’t something an upstanding citizen of Lewisville should be doing. Good thing she had never thought of herself as an upstanding person, because life would be boring that way, but before Jimmy’s rude interruption, she had thought what had happened in that alley was one of the most exciting things to happen in her life.

“You’re fucking crazy!” Jimmy croaked at Ax.

Did the imbecile not know when to shut up?

“Wait ’til I tell everyone what happened here.”

With that, Tia’s own anger erupted. She lashed out, her foot connecting with his unprotected balls.

“You are the biggest fucking idiot I’ve ever met, Jimmy Doland. If you want your daddy to continue doing business with the Three Circle Ranch, you might want to shut your mouth. How are you going to explain to him that it was your stupidity that lost him one of the best breeding bulls in the state? And let’s not forget about all our stallions that your daddy gets to stud with just a bit cheaper than everyone else, ’cause we were being neighborly and all,” Tia stated, hitting where it would hurt—the Doland family pocket. If they couldn’t stud from McGraetty stock, they would have to either buy their own or go elsewhere. That would cost them a hell of a lot more than what they were currently paying.