Springer, Jan - Be My Dream Tonight [The Desperadoes 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (12 page)

* * * *

The barely moving wind had a crisp bite to it when Kayne stepped out of the warm cabin and into the beautiful, golden, sun-washed valley of midmorning. It was cold despite the sun shining brightly, and the sky was clear and the bluest he’d seen it in a long time. Beyond the nearby river, the mountain range rose up like giant purple waves topped with whitecaps. Until this very moment, he didn’t realize how colorful everything suddenly looked again. Hadn’t realized that the color had truly gone out of his life since Eve had been gone.

He swallowed a tremendous shot of excitement. Now that she was back and he was having sex with her again, things were starting to look nice. Inside himself he felt better, too, but he craved having all of her back.

Before her memory loss, she’d been more playful, easy to tease. She’d taunt the guys and himself if she didn’t get her daily sex fix. But now, despite her confidence in her abilities of riding a horse, which, he might add, she did much better than any of them, and the lightning-quick way she went for her gun at the slightest hint of trouble, made it seem like she was one of the guys now.

Kind of. But she was a hell of a lot prettier. And sexy as sin. But she was too serious for his liking, despite him liking her even more now that he didn’t feel the need to constantly protect her.

Kayne frowned as he unzipped his jacket and tugged a piece of grizzly bear jerky out of his shirt pocket. Zipping the coat back up, he ripped off a healthy piece of jerky with his teeth and slowly chewed the salty, dried meat.

From inside he could hear Maddox and Riley laughing. They were planning on making breakfast for Eve, allowing her to sleep. After all the pleasure the four of them had experienced, they were tired and satisfied, yet Kayne felt like he could go another round with her.

In the old days, he would have gone back in, woken her up, and had a quick fuck. She’d purr like a kitten and accept him. But now, he wasn’t so sure.

Maybe he just needed some time to get reacquainted with her. Or maybe it was just himself that was edgy due to the fact he didn’t know what to do about this place that Trader Jack had left them. Or maybe he was itching to get his hands on the gold Eve had mentioned and just wanted to get it over with.

Hell, he didn’t know what the problem was. All he knew was he missed the peaks of boldness Eve had been experimenting with before she’d been taken from them. He’d liked that she’d been starting to take the initiative, despite their warnings to her that they would demand sex, not her.

Her occasional bouts of boldness had turned him on, and he’d enjoyed punishing her when she went against their rules. Enjoyed sexually dominating her during those times. Taking control of her body. Especially that last morning when she’d come to him wearing nothing but boots and a blanket. She’d wanted sex. He’d given it to her nice and rough. Twice. That last time without a condom…

Kayne shook his head with annoyance and ripped off another piece of jerky with his teeth.

No use in wondering. No use in asking. She would have mentioned a kid if she’d had his. He would have known when he’d seen her naked body splayed out on the couch that she’d had one. He would
know
if she’d had a child. Wouldn’t he?

Kayne shook his head. Crazy thoughts. He and the other guys had promised themselves and each other that they wouldn’t make her pregnant. They’d agreed they didn’t want to bring kids into this post-Catastrophe world. A world where they had to keep an eye out for cannibals, criminal elements like himself, and being cold and on the run all the time.

It doesn’t have to be this way
, an inner voice teased.

Kayne grimaced at that thought and stepped off the porch, suddenly wanting to put distance between the guys’ laughter and himself. They were taking it easy this morning. Forgetting why they’d come out this way. They didn’t realize that there was still much more planning to do, and Eve had more proving to do with her gun before he even allowed her to ride further on this venture.

He started toward the hill containing Trader Jack’s wind energy turbine. Even from here, he could see the old man’s contraption was spinning wildly in the wind. Not only had the old fellow positioned it on a hill, but he’d also picked a spot midway between two mountains where the wind was forced to flow between the mountains and into the back section of the valley. It was amazing how precise the old guy had been. A few hundred yards away from the large gardens that he’d tilled, the trees swayed like crazy, and on this side of the cabin, the air was crisp but barely moved.

As he strolled past the gardens, he couldn’t help but notice that Trader Jack had already started planting. There was a section where small seedlings were sprouting, even in this cold weather and way too early in the season, he would think.

He wasn’t much of a gardener, but his grandmother had had one in her backyard, and she usually waited until near the end of May to plant. Trader Jack had planted a month earlier. But maybe out west here things were different. Or maybe because of the wind shade from the mountains?

He could make out kale and cabbage seedlings coming up. There were onions and some weird, twisted-looking salad greens. He hated salad, and hopefully the guys wouldn’t find them and make a tossed salad for breakfast. Yuck!

The old man had left the place to the Durango Gang. The son of a gun had told Kayne to stop the gang’s criminal activities, find a good woman, and settle down like some of the other members had done.

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time
, is what Jack used to say, quoting some police drama he’d watched on TV in his younger years. The time, meaning eternity after getting hanged by the neck until dead, which was the usual method of getting rid of the criminal element these days. Vigilantes dished out their own brand of justice. They hanged first and asked questions later. He couldn’t really blame some of them under the circumstances. No real law existed anymore. Just self-appointed people who felt the need to take the law into their own hands and dole out their own brand of justice. Kind of what he was doing with the gang.

Most people who’d survived the Catastrophe had been unprepared. Some had emergency food supplies, but most depended on electricity and transportation to get them to work. He’d been one of the latter. He’d turned to crime in order to survive, and then it had turned to stealing from the rich to give to the poor. His robberies were carefully aimed at a select few rich who’d profited off the misery of others. And there were many people who did just that. Greed was rampant, and Kayne felt immense satisfaction helping out the less fortunate and less aggressive.

But how could he settle down here? How could they all settle down here? There were a lot of poor people depending on him. Besides, the entire gang had a price on their heads. Anyone could come gunning for them to collect the bounty.

The other members who’d quit had managed to infiltrate themselves back into the working-class, self-employed world without any problems. Maybe if they kept a low profile here, things would blow over? Yeah, and now that was wishful thinking.

Rich people took it pretty seriously when they got robbed. Didn’t matter that they robbed regular folk with their insanely high prices. Kayne shook his head. They could dish it out, but they couldn’t take it.

And he was being really naive in thinking this way, wasn’t he? It was only a matter of time before he got caught and had to pay the piper and answer to the crimes he’d committed. He just hoped it was later rather than sooner.

Chapter Five

It was Maddox and Riley’s jovial laughter that ripped Eve out of her slumber. She’d fallen asleep again after having sex with the three of them and had slept so deeply and so wonderfully that now she was wide awake and full of energy.

And still aroused, she realized. She stretched her arms from beneath the several layers of blankets the guys must have draped over her nude form and felt the big plug pushed deeper into her ass, making her gasp at the erotic pressure. Her nipples were aching and red from Riley’s manipulations, and her pussy was wonderfully sore after being taken by the three of them.

To tell the truth, it felt as if a cock were lodged in her ass, and that naughty thought raced right through her like a bolt of electricity, making her want to reach down and touch her pussy and masturbate right here and now.

Their laughter once again split through the air and reached into the living room, breaking her from those thoughts. She needed to get up, get washed, and get dressed. If she lay on the couch here for much longer, maybe she just might have to ask them to get their asses back in here and go another round with them. Just like in the old days.

Eve had been bold back then. She knew it. Could feel it brewing deep inside of her. She just couldn’t seem to reach that part of her and realized she just couldn’t be bold with them now by calling out and telling them she wanted another good fucking. Frustration ripped through her at her shyness, and she flung the blankets aside, swung her feet over the edge of the couch, and sat up.

She would go down to the creek and get cleaned up. Maybe she would feel better then. Maybe she would remember more about their relationship, and her boldness would come back?

Yeah, right. As if it could be that easy.

* * * *

Riley ripped large chunks off the sourdough and dropped them one by one into the bear cooking oil. He smiled as the sizzling sound split the air. His mother used to make this for breakfast. Not in bear oil but in vegetable oil she’d pick up at the grocery store. Nowadays he had to rely on Maddox to generate the cooking oil from the animals he harvested, for lack of a better word.

When he’d gotten older and headed off to college and then into the workplace, he’d make up a batch of sourdough starter the night before, and in the morning he’d whip up a nice feast for himself.

His breath caught at the wave of physical pain shooting through his gut as he suddenly thought about his late wife and their two daughters. Ah, hell, he used to make this food for them, too.

Emotions, thick and raw, threatened to have him start swearing at what had happened to them. Ah, shit, he didn’t want to think about it right now. It just hurt too damned much. He forced his thoughts from his dead family. It was a matter of survival to not to think about the helplessness and anguish he’d felt the afternoon the solar flares had hit. He knew if he thought about his wife and kids too much, he’d most likely go insane.

He turned his thoughts to Eve.

Sweet, sexy Eve.

Now she was back. Physically as beautiful, hell, more beautiful than ever. Emotionally, she was coming back, too. He could see it in the way she looked at them. It was only a matter of time before she was fully back. Until then, he’d show her exactly how much he’d missed her. Breakfast in bed was a good start.

Behind him, he heard the familiar stomping of Mad’s footsteps as he crossed the veranda. A moment later, he heard the front door open down the hall.

“I found a ton of stuff for you to cook, Ri. Trader Jack has a freaking root cellar in the side of some hill, and he’s got root vegetables stored in there,” Maddox called out, and Riley flipped him the middle finger in a sudden burst of anger as he entered the kitchen, his arms laden with carrots, turnips, and beets.

“Keep your voice down. Eve’s still sleeping,” he snapped.

Maddox frowned. “No, she’s not. When I just passed the living room, the couch where she was sleeping was empty. I thought she was in here with you?”

A bad, sinking feeling sliced through Riley. In a rush he brushed past Mad and relaxed when he noticed her rifle was missing from the table where he’d last seen it.

“Where is she?” Mad’s concerned voice said from right beside him.

Riley smiled at his friend’s anxious look. Maddox reacted just like a guy who was in love with a woman should react. That is, reacting in a way toward a woman who couldn’t take care of herself. Eve could take care of herself now, but only as long as she kept that rifle with her. He had a pretty good feeling that if they followed her out to find her, she’d reprimand them. He’d watched her while they rode along the trails. Noticed how fast she could slide her rifle out of the scabbard whenever she sensed trouble. Fuck, someone had taught her really well. He just wondered who.

“She likes to bathe in the mornings, remember?” He slapped Mad on the back then started back to the kitchen to check on his sourdough. “She must have gone down to the creek. Come on, let’s get breakfast ready. When she gets back, we’ll have a feast fit for a queen.”

* * * *

The rushing river was cold as it splashed between Eve’s fingers where she’d squatted on the river bank. Too cold for a bath, but that was okay. She’d have herself a quick sponge bath and then return to the cabin before the men even noticed she was missing. After getting out from beneath all those warm, toasty blankets, she’d wrapped herself in one of the warmer blankets and grabbed a couple of clean towels, a washcloth, and a huge bar of flowery-scented soap from Trader Jack’s many piles of goods that he had placed around his showroom-style living room. Then she’d slung her rifle over her shoulder using the strap attached to it, tiptoed to the front door, slipped on her moccasins that C.J. had made her out of some deer hide, and slowly eased the front door open.

She’d gasped at the chill in the air but quickly headed outside. As she’d rounded the veranda, she’d smiled sadly at the wicker chair and the area on the veranda where the guys had found Trader Jack’s body. She’d said a soft thank you to his leaving them his lovely cabin, and then she’d spied Maddox leaving a side door and heading toward the garden. Not wanting to chat with him at the moment, or maybe she was too damned embarrassed at what had happened with all the guys having sex with her earlier this morning, she’d turned and gone the other way, heading around back of the cabin, and walked to the creek.