Her Billionaire, Her Wolf(54)

“Nope...I’m taking you back to the old homestead where I grew up. You remember it, right? I think I showed it to you once.

“That’s where we’ll go and then everything will be alright. You’ll see. I have so many memories of that place I want to share with you, Sara. And only with you because you have always been my special girl, darling.”

He nodded to her as she slid listlessly from side to side each time the car made a turn.

“Oh honey, I should have belted you in...I surely should have.”

On the heels of that phrase, he saw his leather belt rising and falling. Rising and falling upon skin that leaped up red and furious with each lash that hit home.

Jackson giggled quietly.

“Of course, the house ain’t there no more. I went back there when you took off and all those memories came to take your place, Sara. The same ones I’m gonna share with you. I’m talking the kind of sharing like a real husband and wife do. Just like that.

“I put kerosene to the place and tried my best to burn it all down. Only when the whole thing finally fell in a heap to the ground, I found out my memories were still there.”

He nodded to her again, then realized that he was still doing it from earlier. There was drool running in a silver track down his chin, too, but he no longer noticed enough to bother swiping at it with his shirt sleeve.

“Can you imagine that, honey? I can’t even burn them out.”

Jackson saw his thick leather belt rising up and up and up, and even if it was not very polite, not at all like a proper gentleman, he could feel himself growing hard while he spoke to Sara.

“Luckily, though, the barn out back is still there. There’s always that. And, even better, lately I’ve been doing some stuff in there that is coming awful close to pushing out some of those other memories.

“I mean, when I think back on it, they come rushing in and fill everything right up with such wonderful thoughts these days.”

The belt arced up high and he could see the metal buckle shining with starlight just before it came crashing down.

Jackson frowned at that when he thought of his darling, special girl. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and did his best to concentrate on the road.

Only that did not stop him from speaking.

“You’ll see. We’re going to have some fun right away quick and it will be the kind of thing we will cherish all the rest of our days, honey. Like a real husband and wife.”

He wanted to stay cheerful, for his sake as much as for her’s, but he knew better than anyone that someone was going to have pay the piper. A lesson was going to be necessary, that was for sure. She had run off, after all, and that was not right. Not at all.

In his ears Jackson could hear the lovely sound his belt buckle makes when it strikes warm flesh. Something far too delicious to avoid, really. Except that once he got started he might not be able to stop. Except that maybe Sara might not still be around by the time he finished.

“But don’t worry, honey. I know just the place to put you and, if I have to, why I’ll do the remembering for the both of us.

“You’ll see.

“This is going to be great.”



Sara heard every garbled word and screamed inside while her body refused to respond.

And the voice that shrieked endlessly behind her empty eyes did so with a single word, a single name, over and over and over.

Braze....





4





These Cunning Bones





Flair ran in the darkness. His nose was low to the ground and his prey was near. Not a thing meant for filling his empty stomach, but a quarry of another kind. The sort that would satisfy another desire altogether, but one not less in the urgent need it awakened within him.

Her scent was thick upon the ground and it was a simple matter to follow her. In heat, heavy and throbbing with her season upon her, she danced the mating dance of time immemorial, making him chase her, forcing him to show her how desirable she was.

He rounded a corner of the trail. An oak three paces wide forced him to turn in a bend and slip under a bush thick with golden fall leaves.

And, when he did, he came to a sudden stop.

She stood before him, her tail up. Her nose was in the air, proud and beautiful.

Flair advanced slowly, his tongue lolling from between his jaws, willing her to hold still. Desperate that the chase had come to an end. Wishing that exquisite denial would prolong this moment ever more.

Her scent filled his head with animal desire and as he approached she turned her regard to look deeply into his eyes.

There was no fear, no more reason to flee before him. Her eyes held only curiosity. They held him spellbound....



His cellphone rang shrilly, its sound keyed to the caller and the importance of the call.