On Deadly Ground (Dan & Chloe Book 2) (5 page)

The deer had moved on and Harry grinded gears and the pick-up slowly began to accelerate once more.

‘And no one in town has seen these men since?’

‘Chuck and his buddies?’ Harry shook his head, ‘I saw one of the fellas the very next day. Looked like he’d gone fifteen rounds with Tyson, he was packing his car and leaving town just like Dan told him to. I figure the others did the same.’

‘These men, they were locals?’

‘Yar, but they were assholes, bad to the core, each and every one of them, and Chuck was the worst, rapist or so I was told, no one was sad to see them go.’

‘But still, for local men to leave behind everything and everyone that they had ever known...’

Harry had had enough of Lawson’s attitude.

‘Look
Sher-Iff
. Dan and Chloe are good friends of mine and a lot of other folks in town like them too. Sure they keep to themselves but that’s there God given right. You asking me all these questions, it just don’t sit right with me, you hear me?’

The venom in Harry’s voice shocked Pete, he sat back in his seat and raised his hands in a placating gesture.

‘Damn Harry I was only jawing.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Harry went silent then.

He continued along the open road for another mile and just when Lawson figured that any further talk was out the window Harry cleared his throat.

‘You know Bill and Sandy, they run the diner at the corner of Main and East?’

‘Sure Harry, I know Bill and Sandy, best damn coffee in town.’

Harry laughed, ‘I’m not so sure of that but you know ‘em right, well, they have a daughter, a sweet little thing named Rosie.’

Lawson nodded his head, ‘I’ve seen her around a couple of times, isn’t she off at college somewhere?’

‘Yar, that she is, well see, Rosie is really gifted around horses. She helped out at Dan and Chloe’s when they first moved out here, helped them settle in and whatnot. Well anyways, she’d always wanted to go to veterinary school, down there in Wyoming, but there was no way she could afford it, and despite all the hours Bill and Sandy put in at the diner they wouldn’t be able to afford veterinary school for Rosie if they worked ‘til they were a hundred.’

Harry asked Lawson for a Camel and the Sheriff obliged. He waited for Harry to crank the driver’s side window down. Harry took a long drag on the filtered cigarette.

‘Well see, Dan and Chloe got to like Rosie, and guess who paid for Rosie to go to that veterinary school down there in Wyoming?’

‘
They paid
?’ Lawson asked with something akin to awe in his voice. ‘How much something like that run to?’

‘I asked around, I was intrigued myself, best I can hazard, six years at that school, to get fully trained and qualified, no grant or scholarship, no loans? About two hundred thousand dollars and change.’

Lawson coughed on his cigarette.

‘The hell you say!’

‘I tell ya straight Pete, Rosie wants to specialise in equine medicine. The costs soon mount up, think about it, attending college hundreds of miles away, tuition fees, books, boarding.’

‘And Dan and Chloe just up and paid for Rosie to go?’

Harry nodded his head.

‘Yes sir, when Rosie comes home for the holidays she works out at the ranch for free but whatever way you look at it, it would take her decades to work that debt off. Dan and Chloe offered it as a gift and no hidden agenda.’

‘Damn, that’s something else,’ Lawson said.

Harry flicked the stub of his cigarette out of the window, red sparks blowing in the wind.

‘Exactly Pete, Dan and Chloe did that for Rosie, they’re good people. They’re my very dear friends so you leave them the fuck alone.’

                                                        *****

CHAPTER SIX.

Chloe stood at the floor
-to-ceiling bedroom windows, they overlooked the stables and she could see Dan down there talking to his horse.

Chloe finished drying her breasts with a towel and she turned away from the windows.

She looked at the large king-size bed that was situated dead centre in the middle of the expansive bedroom and smiled. She loved this room almost as much as the “lighthouse”. The floor was pine, she had sanded and varnished the whole room herself. As she walked across the room she could feel the smoothness of the highly buffed flooring beneath her bare feet. Chloe stopped at the foot of the bed and smiled once again at the clothes that Dan had laid out for her.

Chloe sat on the edge of the bed, the cool silk sheets caressing her nakedness. She picked up the black suspender belt that Dan had laid out for her and she quickly fastened it around her waist; it looked good against the tanned surface of her flesh.

As Chloe continued to get dressed she thought about this evening and the look that she had seen on Dan’s face when he had thought she wasn’t looking at him. She shivered at the memory, the burning in her husband’s eyes, there was something bothering him and Chloe didn’t know what to do about it.

For now, all she could do was offer Dan a night of unbridled passion. She tugged on the black knickers that he had chosen for her and she caught sight of the whip coiled around one of the bed’s head posts. Chloe bit her bottom lip as she wondered what her husband had in store for her.

Chloe picked up the matching black bra. She eyed the black PVC zippered dress that was hanging by a hook on one of the four massive oak columns that ran up through the floor from the ground level. Each post was in a corner of the massive bedroom and to Chloe they looked like carved trees, each column rose out of the floorboards and disappeared in to the ceiling overhead.

Chloe slipped her left hand in to the cups of her bra adjusting her breasts until they felt comfortable. She tightened the bra’s straps until her breasts were pushed tight together creating a cleavage that she knew would have Dan salivating. Not for the first time Chloe wondered what it was about tits that turned men in to zombies.

Flash ‘em some flesh and they would be led to the very gates of hell.
Chloe chuckled,
I mean, every second person on the planet has them
.

Chloe squeezed her large and rounded breasts and she smiled at the thought of Dan’s zombie-like obedience.

‘Men, so easy to manipulate,’ Chloe said aloud to the empty room.

Chloe picked up the glossy black stockings that Dan wanted her to wear. She raised her left foot on to the edge of the bed and slipped the stocking over her toes, her fingers pooled the stocking at her toes and she pushed her foot in to the stocking, she slowly worked the glimmering sheath up her calf and over her knee. Chloe stood up and smoothed the stocking up her thigh, she quickly attached the two suspender straps to the patterned lace work of the stocking’s top before repeating the process with her other leg.

Chloe fiddled with the straps and suspender belt and padded in her stockinged feet over to the large windows once again. She unlatched the locks and pushed the windows open; the windows swung out on well-oiled hinges and a cool breeze swept in to the room.

Chloe could smell the various wild flowers that grew in abundance all over their land, mixed in with the floral scent was the smell of the horses and she closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment. The cool breeze felt comforting against her almost naked body and she inhaled the richness of the night before walking over to the column where her dress was hanging up.

Chloe snagged the PVC dress from the hook and unzipped the front, she slid her arms in to the short sleeves and closed the two sides of the dress together. Chloe fed the zipper’s teeth in to zipper before slowly starting to zip the front of her dress.

The PVC dress was tight and her slight, petite frame only emphasised her heaving breasts. She left a good five inches unzipped so that her immense cleavage would be visible from a mile away.

Chloe returned to the bed and flicked the lid from the shoe box that Dan had left out for her. Chloe shook her head and chuckled as she picked up the left thigh boot.

She heard Weiser chuffing and clutching the boot to her side Chloe moved to the open windows. She looked down towards the paddock and saw that Dan had climbed on to the back of the horse, without a saddle or reins and Chloe hoped that Dan knew what he was playing at.

Chloe watched as Dan gently dug his heels in to the sides of Weiser and the horse moved off. Chloe remained where she was until both horse and rider disappeared in to the darkness. She could no longer see Dan but she could hear the sounds of Weiser’s hooves as Dan urged the horse firstly in to a trot and then in to a full blown gallop.

Chloe flashed back on their time in Australia and she cursed loudly as realisation dawned on her. She crossed quickly to the bed and sat down, she pulled on each thigh boot and zipped her legs in to them.

Chloe stood up, the five inch stiletto heels were not easy to walk in but she quickly mastered it as she walked back to the open windows. Chloe had to adjust the tops of the boots so that they came to rest on her thighs just below her stocking tops and she wiggled her body and the PVC dress settled very high on her thighs (it was so short that it barely covered her crotch).

Chloe stepped out on to the reinforced flat roof of the porch. She stood with her legs parted, she planted her hands on her hips and she stood there waiting for Dan to materialise out of the darkness.

Enough light spilled out from the bedroom at her back that when, five long minutes later she finally saw Dan, she knew that when he looked up at her he would see what she was wearing and that she was waiting for him, she needed him to come inside before things got too out of control.

Chloe could see the breath exploding from Weiser’s nostrils, plumes of white, as the magnificent beast settled near the fence. Dan patted the horse’s neck and rubbed Weiser’s ears before glancing up towards Chloe. Even from across the expanse of the yard Chloe could see the smile spread across her husband’s emotionally tortured face. Dan raised his right hand and waved.

‘I’m on my way,’ he called out.

‘Hurry up,’ Chloe called back before walking back in to the bedroom.

She left him with one last glimpse of her ass before she disappeared inside and moments later Dan could hear music swelling out through the open bedroom windows.

Chloe was playing one of her Britney Spears albums and Dan chuckled before sliding down from Weiser’s back.

Dan climbed over the fence and fetched Weiser an apple from the stable. He returned to the fence and offered Weiser his reward. Weiser quickly made the apple disappear. Dan clicked his fingers and the horse took off across the paddock.

Dan headed for the ranch and he quickly ran through in his head the conversation he was about to have with Chloe. Dan closed the front door behind him and he kicked his cowboy boots off, he left them by the front door.

Dan had no idea how Chloe would react to what he was about to tell her but he knew that she had to hear what he was thinking; the outcome would affect them both.

                                                        *****

Dan stepped out from beneath
the powerful jets of hot water, he switched the shower off and swept the glass panel back on its wheeled braces. Stepping out of the large shower he snatched a towel from the rail and patted the towel against his face.

He moved over to the large mirror mounted on the wall and he looked at his reflection. His eyes quickly located the various scars that covered his body, scars that were a testament to more dangerous times.

Dan’s gaze settled on one in particular, he traced his fingers over the puckered surface of the scar tissue, a mark of brotherly hatred, and he flashed back to that moment in England when he had killed his only sibling. Despite the intervening years the memory was still painful.

Dan turned from the mirror and in doing so he turned his back on his past once more.

Chloe had snuck in to the large bathroom, and in her heels that was no easy trick. She was standing next to the doorway leaning back against the slated wall, her left foot up against the wall so that her left knee was pointing in to the room. Her stance offered Dan a view that indicated of the pleasures to come.

Despite his melancholic thoughts the sight of Chloe dressed the way she was had an instant reaction on him and his cock flooded with blood and his erection stood straight out, pointing
wantingly
at Chloe.

Dan finished drying his body and let the towel drop to his feet.

‘Well, are you just gonna look at me, or are you going to put that cock to good use?’ Chloe asked, she licked her lips suggestively and batted her eyelashes.

Dan smiled but he didn’t make a move towards her. He cleared his throat and said, ‘I have to talk to you.’

Chloe shook her head from side to side, her electric pink hair swishing around her face. The blue of her eyes sparkled beneath the bathroom’s lights and Dan saw her flash of anger, it came and went in a split second but it had been there.

‘No Dan, not tonight, not “Date-Night”. If you love me baby tell me in the morning, but tonight, let’s not think about what needs to be done. Please?’