Tiger Bound (3 page)

“I’m saying,” Brenda agreed. “But is it the look you’re going for? Do you want to be the sweet and innocent virgin like this white piece here, or do you want the red one with holes where the nipples go? I think it comes with crotchless panties too.”

Deja shook her head. “Number one, I’m nobody’s virgin, okay?”

Brenda slapped her hand in a high five, and they laughed.

“Second,” Deja continued, “I’m not sure I’m going to do this.”

“You’ll do it.” Brenda’s tone held complete confidence. She stuffed a few more pieces into Deja’s hands for her to peruse. “On the off chance you don’t go for it, I will call you crazy, and you’ll have some nice stuff for the next guy.”

“Like I need this stuff to beat a guy off with a stick. I’m already having to turn them down.”

Brenda let out a whoop that had heads turning their way in the store. “That’s what I’m talking about. You know you have it, Deja, so you have to flaunt it.”

Deja hated to correct her. “It’s not that I know I have it. It’s that there just isn’t much competition in this town. Anybody who looks like anything or has any ambition in his life has moved on. Everybody else has to pick through the leftovers.”

“Well, damn, here I was thinking you had enough self-esteem for all of us, and you go and bust my bubble.”

Brenda’s pout made Deja crack up. “Oh, my self-esteem is fine. I’m just messing with you. I guess you’ve convinced me. I will take the white and the red and decide when we’re together which one I’m going for.”

“So you’re definitely doing it?”

She sighed. “Yes, Brenda, I’m doing it. I’m going to be Heath’s lover.”

The gasp behind them made both Deja and Brenda spin around to see Candi standing there. Red crept into the woman’s face until Deja thought she would pass out. Her shaped eyebrows stretched almost to her hairline and then crashed low on her forehead. Her wide mouth tightened into a bow, and she curled her manicured nails as if they were claws. Deja put a hand on her hip and waited. Let her try something if she wanted. Before she could say anything, Brenda leaped in front of her, moving faster than Deja gave her credit for. “How you doin’, Candi, honey? I thought you’d be at the diner at this time, what with the late lunch and early dinner crowd coming in.”

Brenda said
crowd
, but gathering one wasn’t too hard when the diner where Candi worked happened to be one of two decent places to eat in town. Aside from that, she had to wonder if Candi followed her around the way they bumped into one another. Then again, someone like Candi would know about this place selling racier items. Deja hadn’t given it a second thought in passing, until today.

“I’m on break, thank you very much,” Candi snapped. She scraped another look over Deja and pivoted on her heel to flounce away. Deja watched her go, knowing full well she’d overheard their conversation. Candi would either redouble her efforts or give up. She got her answer when the woman stopped before a man near the door and put a hand on his chest, casting him an alluring smile and fluttering her lashes. Too far away, Deja couldn’t hear what she said, but knew it would be an invitation to her bed. Deja examined the man and recognized the stranger she’d seen at the burial. She never did ask Heath if he knew him or if he’d approached him to give his condolences, and she knew for a fact he never came to the house. Maybe he was new in town.

“Hey, Brenda, you know him?” She gestured with a point of her chin, trying to be subtle.

Her friend turned to look. “Mm, not bad.”

Not bad where? Does she see that nose?

“He has that rugged, dangerous look,” Brenda said, coming close to purring. “Too bad the skank got to him first, but then he doesn’t look like he’s going for it.”

Deja considered looking away and making Brenda do the same before the man caught them, but she couldn’t help herself. Around there, almost everybody knew their neighbor, and anyone else who wandered into town within a couple of hours. This guy eluded the usual gossip mill if Brenda hadn’t picked up news on him. She wouldn’t stoop to asking Candi when she finished her play for the guy. Ah well, maybe the wind would soon blow him out of town the way it brought him in.

While they stared, the man’s gaze rose from Candi’s flushed face to lock with Deja’s. Brenda was right. He did have that dangerous air to him, and she shivered. Who the heck did he come into a woman’s boutique to shop for, and was she nuts to even get involved with a guy like him? She hoped her assessment of his character was wrong, for the woman’s sake, and was glad she and hers weren’t on his radar. She took Brenda’s arm and pulled her in the direction of the cashier. They had been there long enough.

* * * *

Heath ran a hand over his forehead, swiping away the moisture. He straightened and stretched his stiff muscles from bending over for so long. Because his ranch wasn’t one of the biggest, and he needed to conserve money, he had to do a lot of the labor himself, along with the couple of guys he hired to help out. After mucking out the barn, his drenched shirt clung to his skin, and he unbuttoned it, dragged it off his shoulders, and used the material as a towel to clean up some of the moisture on his chest. When he was done with the barn, he moved outside to his tractor. Time to feed the cattle.

“Ready?” Buck called when he spotted Heath.

“Yeah.”

Buck was a friend and one of his ranch hands. Buck pissed him off with his notions a good bit of the time, but he didn’t need to be told what to do or learn how to run the ranch. His friend had worked various jobs on ranches in the area and down in Texas for years. He too had a dream like Heath did, to have his own, but Heath was grateful he’d agreed to help him when his time came first.

Heath drove the feed wagon out while Buck went to get the minerals. They would add in some corn by-product and hay and have the mixture he fed his animals twice a day. The job took a bit of time, what with how slowly the cattle ate and how much of it, but he wanted them healthy for when the time came to sell. Taking shortcuts wasn’t something he entertained.

Today he put in extra hours, having risen earlier than usual so he could work until it hurt to breathe. At least then he wouldn’t think of losing his father so much. He knew over time, the pain would ease, but the loneliness of having no family wouldn’t. Sure, he had Deja, and having her made the difference between sinking into despair and moving forward, but what about if she found a man to share her life with? Part of the reason he’d suggested they become lovers was so that wouldn’t happen. Selfish, he knew, but he didn’t deny it. Why did family mean so much to him? Maybe it was because he never had a good relationship with his father and his mother died so early in his life. Sometimes, he dreamed of finding a wife and settling down to have a houseful of kids, but then for some reason, he never made the effort. A few flings here and there was all it amounted to.

As he stepped from the truck, he winced at the shooting pain in his head. He rubbed his temple and cursed. Because he woke earlier than usual trying to escape his thoughts, he forgot to take his meds. “Hey, Buck, I’ll be right back. I need to do something real quick at the house.”

Buck called after him, but Heath pretended not to hear. The only person who knew he took meds regularly to ward off the pain and to suppress the vivid dreams he had on the regular was Deja. He didn’t need anyone else knowing. Having taken them all his life, he was used to it, and they helped for the most part.

He entered his house through the back door and headed to his bathroom. The pill bottle sat in the cabinet there, and he popped it open to dump two into his palm. Come to think of it, his father usually stocked him up when he drove over to Oklahoma City. Heath had allowed him to keep up the practice because his time was so consumed making his ranch a success. He took the bottle back out of the cabinet and dumped the rest of the pills into his hand. Ten days worth remained. How the hell could he be so irresponsible as to not find out where his father got the supply after all this time? He thought about it and came to the conclusion that the pills were the single thing they never argued about. He needed them. His dad had asked to do that small favor for him, and he’d allowed it because of that. Now what? He had to have them or suffer without them. Maybe his father had information in his papers.

Heath left the bathroom and strode along the hall to stop at his dad’s bedroom door. He’d closed it the day he got the news, and when he opened it now, the familiar scent of the man hit him hard. He slammed the door and backed away. He had work to do.

Outside, he threw himself into feeding the cattle until Buck noticed. “Hey, pace yourself, dude. You’ll throw out your back, and then what? Who’s going to pick up the slack?”

Heath pulled off his hat, ran fingers through his wet hair, and stuffed it back on. “Just have some things on my mind is all.”

“Like what?”

They worked together to toss more hay into the feeder. He needed to buy a new tractor, as the used one he purchased a few years ago gave him more trouble than it was worth. He hesitated to talk to Buck about his feelings regarding his dad, but discussing Deja was fine.

“I asked Deja about becoming lovers,” he blurted.

Buck looked around as if checking to see if anyone else was near. “You mean like girlfriend-boyfriend stuff?”

Heath frowned. “Yeah, I guess.”

Buck said nothing for a long time. Heath thought he had no opinion on the matter, or he wanted to avoid an argument. Then again, that never stopped the man from voicing what he felt. When they took a break and sucked down a few bottles of water, Buck swiped an arm over his face then used the hose to douse his head. Heath waved a hand, deciding not to follow suit.

“So don’t you have anything to say?” he insisted.

Buck pulled a tin can from his pocket and stuffed a few bites of tobacco into his mouth, frustrating Heath all the more. He spit and spoke at last. “The way I see it, if you want to have a piece of that black meat, you do it in secret. Hell, I always wondered why you and she was best friends, but sounds like you want to get serious. I think—”

“
I
think you’ve already said more than enough,” Heath bit out. “I never figured you to be prejudiced.”

“I’m not,” Buck denied.

“What do you call it?” Heath took a step toward him, but Buck held up his glove-covered hands, retreating.

“Come on, Heath, I’m your friend.”

“Fuck off.”

Buck wouldn’t let it go. “You’re telling me you’re okay with having her for a girlfriend, or hell, a wife? I mean, if you didn’t have any reservations, don’t you think you would have done it before now? And why wait until your dad was gone? Why now? Because he wouldn’t approve? Maybe you’re doing it because you’re scared you’ll lose another person, and you don’t want that.”

Even as his anger boiled, Heath couldn’t deny the sense Buck made. Had he really made Deja the offer because he didn’t want to be alone? If that were the case, he was no better than a child, a little boy, unable to get along in the world without help. He grabbed Buck up by the collar of his shirt and jerked him hard. When he raised a fist to smash into his friend’s nose, he paused. Punishing Buck for his small mind didn’t mean he was the better man, and it didn’t clarify for him if he felt the same.

“Go ’head, if you think it will help,” Buck said. “Then we can get back to work.”

Heath sneered at him, but he backed off. Ignoring Buck was the least of his issues. When the day came to an end, he mounted his horse and took to the fields behind his property. Riding hard and letting the wind hit his face would clear his mind. He knew now Buck wasn’t the friend he thought, and he had no intention of talking to him again. Anyone who thought Deja wasn’t good enough because of the color of her skin could not be a part of his life. He couldn’t afford to switch out ranch hands, so he would keep Buck on, but the friendship ended there.

After he had gone until both he and the horse were winded, he came to a stop by a stream and let the animal drink. Heath dismounted and strolled a few feet away. He searched the clear blue sky, but no answer came to him. In fact, pain shot through his head, and his legs buckled. He stooped, catching himself with one hand on the ground, and a vision exploded across his mind’s eye. A man stood before him and extended a hand out. The reality of it impacted him so much he reached out in return, but there was no one there. More agony, as if his head would explode, made him fight not to pass out. He had waited too late to take the pills, and the stash ran low. The option of putting off searching his father’s papers had come to an end.

When he could stand, Heath stumbled back to his horse and rode home at a reduced pace. He popped more pills, although he couldn’t afford to, and washed them down with a beer. Not a good idea, but facing his dad’s things needed something extra. Rather than wait until all the pain receded, he squared his shoulders and headed into the room. He left the door wide to air out the place.

A half hour later, Deja shouted down the hall. “Hey, Heath, you here?”

“In Dad’s room,” he called back, glad for the interruption. She appeared in the doorway, and he allowed his gaze to rove her slender body. Small of stature and figure, but she had big breasts. He hadn’t been lying when he told her his body came alive when she started growing them. Deja’s breasts rivaled every other woman’s he’d ever met, and they were perky too. He dreamed of tasting them and running his thumbs over the hardened nipples, or letting them tease his palms.

She was spicy with her sarcastic wit that kept him laughing, but her beauty outshone even that. She grew her hair just past her shoulders and kept it braided most of the time, pinned high on her head because of the Oklahoma heat, she said. He liked it down, brushing her shoulders, so he could pull it whenever he wanted. Thinking that way brought to mind him tugging it while he fucked her in the ass, and his cock grew hard. He shifted his position so she wouldn’t see.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Packing his things.” He dropped his gaze back to his task and stared at the box of clothes. Another held random papers, bills he had no idea why his father even kept. From his quick scan, none of them held a clue to his meds, but he would go through them a second time with care once he was done organizing everything.