Tex (Burnout) (10 page)

“Stop,” she begged. “Let me go. I- I don’t like this.”

“Really? You don’t like it? Is that why your cheeks are flushed and your pupils are dilated and you’re having trouble breathing normally? Because you don’t like it?” He slid his hand around her left wrist until his fingers settled over her pulse. “Your heart’s racing.”

“Because I’m scared!” she lied.

“Abby. Your nipples are rock hard, your tongue was in my mouth, and you were rubbing your pussy on my thigh.”

She looked down. Her face turned scarlet. “I was not,” she whispered.

He leaned in, his mouth so near she could feel his breath. He bit her earlobe. She yelped at the surprise pinch. “Don’t lie, Abby,” he murmured. “Not to me. Ever. I’ll know and I won’t like it.”

She drew in a sharp breath.

“You like them on top, Abby. You like the feel of their weight on you, pressing you into the mattress, restricting your movements. You also like it because they cover you. If you’re on top you feel too exposed, too much like you’re on display.”

She let out a breath. “How do you
know
?” she couldn’t stop herself from whispering.

“Because I know what you are, Abby. And it doesn’t make you a slut. It just makes you a passionate woman with very specific needs, that’s all.”

Abby nearly scoffed. Passionate. She’d been called a lot of things. That had never been one of them. She sighed heavily. “Mark, I’m not-”

“Tomorrow night,” he said interrupting her. “Come to my house at 8 o’clock. I promise you I will give you a safe environment to learn more about yourself. Nothing out there, nothing too frightening. Just a chance to explore.”

He let her go, took a business card out of his pocket, and pressed it into her hand. “Tomorrow, 8 o’clock. Please come.” When he was gone, Abby inspected the card. It had his home address handwritten on the back.

She let out a breath and leaned back against the counter, turning the card nervously in her hand. Then she stuffed it into her purse.

****

Abby had managed not to give Mark’s offer much thought through most of the next morning, but when it was time for lunch, she pulled her purse out of her desk and reached into it to get her keys, finding the card instead. She frowned at it. Then checked her watch, stuffed the card back inside, and headed out the door. She told Susan, the desk clerk, that she was out for an hour and hopped in her car. She started it up and turned left instead of right out of the garage, heading for the south end of town.

Maria’s had a few afternoon customers but not much. The old man Milo was there and grinned at her as she headed toward the bar.

“Afternoon, Vegas,” he sang brightly.

Abby smiled back. “Milo.”

Without any fanfare, Maria set down a martini glass in front of Abby and poured some Death’s Door and a splash of vermouth into a shaker. Abby’s face broke into a grin. Normally she’d hold off on the liquor before five, but Maria had apparently gone to some trouble.

“Thanks,” Abby said, picking up the glass. She took a sip and nodded at Maria. “Ah,” she said. “Civilization.”

Maria laughed. “Get you anything else?”

Abby hesitated. “Slick here, by any chance?” she asked casually.

The blonde’s eyes narrowed shrewdly, but she reached back and pounded on the swinging door. Moments later the tiny brunette came through. “Abby!” Slick called out.

“Hey,” Abby replied, smiling. “I’m on lunch and I was wondering if we could hang out. Do you have a break or something coming up any time soon?”

Slick looked at her watch. “Um, sure, I could take a lunch now.”

“Great,” replied Abby. She glanced around. “Maybe...some place else?”

The other woman looked a little surprised, but nodded again. “Let me clock out.”

Abby drained the martini and set the glass down on the bar. “Thanks, Maria.” She dug a twenty out of her purse and slid it across the bar. Maria eyed the huge tip. “To offset the cost of the glasses and the shaker and the vermouth,” Abby told her.

The blonde nodded and took the cash.

Slick appeared and Abby re-shouldered her purse, following the woman out the door.

“There’s a cafe a block down,” she told Abby. “We can eat outside since it’s so nice.”

“Sounds perfect.”

Five minutes later the two women were seated at a black wrought iron patio table outside. Abby ordered a salad and Slick ordered a sandwich. When the waiter left, Slick said, “I’m Sarah, by the way. Sarah Sullivan.”

Abby nodded. “Have you lived here all your life?”

“No. I just moved here about a year ago. I’ve lived all over actually. Spent a few weeks in Vegas, too, a long time ago.”

Abby raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Oh yeah?”

Sarah wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, but it wasn’t for me. Too many people and too many lights. You can’t see the stars at night in Vegas.”

“No, you definitely can’t.”

“Plus,” Sarah said, shifting a little in her chair, “I cheated some casinos.”

Abby laughed. “No! You? You seem so...upstanding, for a chick who works in a biker bar.”

Sarah laughed, too. “I needed the money. I think I’m on a watch list.”

“So, what brought you here?” Abby asked.

Sarah rubbed the back of her neck. “The cover of a travel guide. Seemed like a beautiful place.”

Abby sensed she was wading into waters with a pretty deep undertow. “It is that,” she said, lightly, sipping the water the waiter had left. “So, you met Chris, and you got married,” Abby observed. “That’s nice. You two seem great together.”

Sarah nodded. “He was my landlord.”

Abby sat back in the chair. “Um...”

The tiny brunette laughed. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. He didn’t like me at first,” she admitted. “That’s why I’m called ‘Slick’. He thought I was a con artist playing Maria for a job. And on some level I kind of was. Chris offered me a place to stay to keep an eye on me. Then we kind of ended up falling for each other. I moved in right after that, because he said it wasn’t right to take my money.”

Abby smiled. “Well, that’s a hell of a story. People meet each other in all kinds of ways.”
On the side of the road,
she thought, but kept to herself.

As if Sarah had heard her she suddenly said, “You want to know about Tex.”

Abby took a sip of water. “Is it that obvious?”

“No. I mean, we could be friends. That could be why you’re here. In fact, I really hope we get to be. But, yeah, if I were you, in your shoes, I’d want to know about Tex, too.”

“So, you know,” Abby said, letting it hang in the air in case she was wrong.

Sarah nodded. “He’s pretty open about it. I mean, I don’t know details or anything. But he was always honest with me about...how he is.”

“So, everyone else knows, too? Your husband, the guys at the garage?”

“Yeah. Chris says Mark’s a brother, part of the unit, and so whether he’s gay or straight or...kinky....we just deal with it because we love him.”

“So, you and Chris aren’t...” Abby let the question hang in the air.

“No!” Sarah said immediately. “I mean, no, we aren’t. I could never do that.” Abby frowned at Sarah’s words. “I didn’t mean it like that,” Sarah said quietly. “I meant, I can’t ever do anything like that.”

Sarah picked up a napkin and fiddled with it. “I...well, I don’t like to talk about it, but most people around here know because it was on the news. I was attacked.”

Abby felt her gut twist. “Oh, Sarah.”

“It was years ago. Well, the
first
time was years ago. I got away, but my boyfriend at the time, he didn’t make it. And I was afraid the man who’d taken us would find me again, so I ran. That’s why I lived in all those places. To stay hidden. And, like I said, I went into a bookstore in Denver and picked up a travel guide with a photo of the Black Hills on the cover and then I bought a bus ticket.

“I met Maria, who gave me a job. And then Chris, who gave me a place to live. And he didn’t like me at first, but then after a while he could see there was something wrong with me. The more we spent time together, the more he figured out on his own. He swore he’d keep me safe, and he did, for a long time. But the man who...raped me...found me again here in Rapid City.”

“Oh, no,” Abby said quietly, reaching for Sarah’s hand. The other woman took it and squeezed, gratefully.

“That’s how people here know about it,” Sarah told Abby. “Because he came to Chris’ house when I was alone and kidnapped me again. I had to kill him,” she whispered.

“Sarah, I’m so sorry. I hadn’t heard any of this. I would never have asked you-”

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. But I told you that so you’d understand me when I tell you that when I first came here, besides Chris, Mark was the only other man I bonded with. I mean I got along with Hawk and Caleb. Jimmy and I had a rough start, but we figured it out. But I really liked Mark. He was honest with me about who he was and that he was disappointed that I wasn’t his type of girl.” Sarah smiled. “He likes my cooking.”

Abby made a face. “I can’t cook.”

“No, but you work on cars and believe me, he’s fascinated by it.”

“Really?”

Sarah nodded. “They have Thursday night poker at our place every week, and Tex is always talking about your car and how much you’ve done to it already. Anyway, whatever Tex is into, I was always comfortable around him. And when things got really bad for me and my situation, Chris told Tex if anything happened to him, Tex was supposed to take me out of South Dakota and hide me. He told Tex that out of all the guys, Tex was the one he trusted with me the most. So that means a lot to me, that Chris would trust him that much.”

“I could never be tied up or anything,” Sarah admitted. “I sometimes still have nightmares. So, that’s the only reason I could never do anything kinky. Not because I think it’s wrong or anything. Chris would never, ever, allow one of his brothers to hurt a woman. But I know Tex would never do it anyway, whether Chris was around or not. He’s just not like that. He never scared me or made me feel uncomfortable. Not once. Some of that’s because he’s Tex and he’s a good guy. And of course a lot of it is because he’s got a degree in psychology.”

Abby sat forward in her seat. “He does? I thought he was in the Army.”

Sarah nodded. “They all have degrees. The higher up in the army you go, the more common it is. In Special Operations like the Rangers, it’s required. Chris has two. Business and Poly Sci. Mark has two, also. Psychology and Communications. Hawk’s degree is in Computer Science. Caleb has a degree in Criminal Justice and Jimmy’s is in Mechanical Engineering. They all enlisted, then took classes when they weren’t deployed.”

“Wow,” Abby said, impressed.

Sarah grinned. “You thought he was a dumb mechanic?”

Abby grinned back. “Watch it, girlie. There’s nothing dumb about mechanics. My dad was a mechanic.”

Sarah laughed. “Well, there’s not a dumb one in the bunch.” She rolled her eyes, “Although, Tex, with that accent...”

“Yeah, what’s the deal with that?” Abby asked. “It comes and goes. I don’t get it.”

“It’s bullshit. You ever pick up on the fact that it only really comes out around Hawk?”

Abby thought about it. “Now that you mention it. At the bar, yeah, it does get a lot more noticeable.”

Sarah nodded. “That’s because Hawk and Tex have been doing this Cowboy versus Indian shtick since they enlisted together. Hawk was pissed about being in the army and he called Tex a dumb redneck and Tex asked him if he was going to put down the M16 and just throw tomahawks at the enemy.”

“Oh, my God!” Abby gasped.

“And they traded insults for about a year until they got really wasted one night and dared each other to sign up for Ranger school. Which Chris told me one time is so hard that sometimes people die.
During the training part
.”

“Jesus Christ, seriously?”

Sarah nodded. “They starve or freeze to death. Not a lot, but it’s happened.”

“Well, damn,” Abby said. “What’s a spanking compared to that?” she wondered out loud. Then she blushed and looked at Sarah. “Oh. Sorry. Um...”