Salacious Sale Read online

  Icy fingers clutched Cody’s nape. “I really don’t need to see it.”

  “It’s old. We could probably get it preserved for historical reasons in a few years. It’s a big, majestic thing that spreads out wide, rather than tall, and is half bent over like an old man. I think that’s from the dust storms back in the Thirties.”

  Cody eyed the closest bush, then ran his gaze over Olivia’s empty hands. “Shouldn’t you have a gun or something? You’re trying to walk among the wild things. I’d think you’d want some protection.”

  She batted her lashes. “I’ll have you.”

  “I’m pretty sure I’ll let you down. I think we should postpone this little promenade until we’ve got adequate weaponry. Surely there’s something else to see until then?”

  Cody was highly skeptical of his own suggestion. They’d taken every unexpected curve, fork in the road or path they’d come across and had seen every gate, fence and pasture on both their combined properties. He was now able to identify a variety of native plants, thanks to Olivia’s education, and he had seen the stream running through their ranches from four different angles, two of which had been from her side of the property line. The only thing they hadn’t yet visited was the genesis of their overriding issue.

  Well, Olivia’s overriding issue. She was wholly caught up in the stream, its source and how it would affect her home, her cattle and her business. Cody had bigger problems than how much water a spring could produce. Eugene’s future, his happiness, residence and money, the hospital Cody’s father had decided to own, operate and apparently finance with money he swindled from his own father, all added to the pressure of Cody’s job and the twenty boys nearing their graduation that Cody had to steer onto the right course.

  And a very generous proposal from an oil company who’d offered the O’Neals more than they’d ever had before.

  “People come from all over for the privilege of hunting your pigs, Cody. I’m not going to jeopardize my business by killing any of the beasts while I’m not in paying company.” Without taking his desires into account, Olivia stripped the reins from his hand, pulled them over the horse’s head and let them go. “Come on.”

  Cody wasn’t certain he had much choice. Groping for courage, he slid from his saddle. For a long moment, he could do nothing but hang on to the pommel while his legs solidified, but even then, his first few steps were too shaky for his liking.

  Certainly too shaky to run from a wild boar, should the need arise.

  Olivia laughed and beckoned him deeper into the brush. “I just want to show you this, then we’ll ride out to the spring’s source, then we’ll go to my home and get supper.”

  “Uh-huh.” She’d been promising a home-cooked meal for days but had yet to produce. Cody wasn’t certain her mother’s finest was worth a trip into the scrub. “If we don’t get attacked, gored and eaten by wildlife first.”

  “Just this, then we’ll go.”

  “I’m exhausted,” he said, somewhat desperately. “Let’s just get going and we’ll come see this another day. Do you have a group at your ranch right now? Maybe tomorrow I could join up with them and come out here and—”

  “It’s a few hundred feet away, Cody. Come on.”

  Reluctantly, he followed. To his immense relief, there was a narrow path leading all the way to the base of the mulberry, which told him the Raines women really did have an affinity for the fruit. Cody didn’t think he’d ever had mulberry pie or preserves, and from the looks of the misshapen tree—a bushy thing somewhat like a candelabra knocked onto its side—he didn’t know if he ever would.

  “You missed the season,” Olivia told him, breaking a hush that was still oddly filled with muted birdsong and animal chitters. “There are a few berries left, but we’ve picked pounds and pounds. I’ll give you some preserves when we get to the house.”

  Beneath his feet lay a carpet of tiny, clustered fruit. Some were black or deep purple, some red and others white. The smell of woodsy, damp earth, tangy with a little sweetness at the back of Cody’s throat, filled his head. Squirrels scampered over the twisted branches of the tree and birds refused to give up their prime real estate as the humans approached.

  “Bold, aren’t they?”

  Olivia snorted with laughter. “Everybody likes mulberries. Besides, nothing moves in this scrub until they hear a gunshot. Most of the land in these parts is still hosting wheat and whatnot. This acreage is best for the wildlife to find good food in. They get a mite territorial about it, plus we get a fair number of birdwatchers out at the ranch, not just hunters, so the critters have gotten used to people.”

  “Still, I feel like they’re daring me to get closer.” Cody shivered. “This is a walking horror movie. Attack of the Mulberry Creatures or something.”

  “Maybe you’ve just spent too much time in cities. There’s no reason to get freaked out by a few little animals.”

  As if to prove her wrong, a squeal resounded from the bushes behind them. The foliage shook violently and a dim crash of hooves against dirt that changed from hard-packed to damp with mulberry juice came straight toward them.

  Cody didn’t think. He simply reacted to the panic squeezing his heart. He grabbed Olivia and swung her toward the tree. With terror scorching his veins and prodding his muscles into action, he held his breath and unsuccessfully tried to boost Olivia onto the branches. Plastering his own body to hers, he pressed her against the trunk, ignoring the wild chattering of squirrels as they leaped away, batting at the swooping birds as they screeched and took flight around them.

  For a moment, nature was in complete chaos. From the corner of his eye, he saw a giant pig charge them. At the last second, the pig veered left, its mulberry-stained snout close enough that Cody checked his shins for fruity smears. As quickly as it had come, the animal disappeared into the brush and quiet descended around them, thick and eerie, as adrenaline continued to flood Cody’s system.

  “Fuck.” As close as they stood, his curse puffed against Olivia’s lips and rebounded onto his own. A moment later, he tore his shocked glare from the still-shaking bushes and focused on her. She was composed, as if boars attacked her every day.

  Her eyes gleamed. Her gaze moved from the pulse pounding in his throat to his face, then her lashes fell and her lips curved. She slid her arms around his neck. “My hero.”

  “Jesus fucking Christ!” Cody had a hard time finding enough oxygen, but his brain was no longer paralyzed beneath a tide of raw, primal panic. “We’ve got to get out of here before that beast comes back.”

  “I think we’re safe enough.” She went to her toes and writhed against his body.

  “Olivia! This is not the time to try and seduce me out of my property!”

  She didn’t appear to be listening to him. Shifting her hand down his chest and tucking her fingers into his waistband, she purred, “Aren’t you on fire? Nothing gets the juices flowing like a little fear.”

  “You’re crazy!” Cody jolted as Olivia boldly slipped her hand into his pants. “This won’t get you the Double O!”

  “I’m not really thinking about property rights and real estate right now,” she assured him. “Maybe I keep starting out that way, but every time I touch you, I just get wet.”

  “My God.”

  “Maybe it’s simply been too long since—” She closed her hand around his dick.

  The oxygen he’d been struggling to drag in immediately reversed course, leaving Cody gasping, his lungs seemingly turning inside out. Olivia pulled her palm the full length of his shaft—from where it met his body to the very top of the sensitive tip—then she dug her thumb into the divot that marked the rise of his crest.

  His entire cock hardened in a painful rush. The little bastard was begging, leaving Cody’s thoughts far behind, with only a vague understanding that there was a great reason for not fucking her right there against the tree.

  Some reason…some…but Cody’s arguments scattered when Olivia rotated her palm over the
tip of his dick. He rolled his eyes then closed them and opened his mouth on a sigh. It had been so long since anyone had touched him. His job prevented much of a social life. Fear morphed into need in the blink of an eye.

  Thoughts flown under a wave of sensation, Cody yanked at Olivia’s waistband. He tore at the button of her jeans, jerked at her zipper. As she had done to him, he thrust his hand into her pants, delving beneath her cotton panties to find the slick, silken heat of her.

  She moaned as she widened her stance for him. “See? Wet.”

  “Uh-huh.” Cody traced her folds, hardly hearing Olivia’s words. None of them sounded like ‘no’ so he slid his fingertip around her clit, forged farther and curled it into her pussy. Liquid fire wrapped his knuckles.

  As she lifted her hips, her body sucked him deeper. Gritting his teeth, Cody withdrew and returned, pumping the single finger he’d used to penetrate her. Every sense he had focused wholly on the feel of her. Hot, tight, wet…the same adjectives circled around and around in a repeating litany that pounded in his balls. She was so soft, her walls snuggling against his finger so tightly that just the thought of how she’d feel clamped around his dick had him arching into her hold.

  She fisted him with perfect pressure. Her grip was strong, but not strangling, firm enough to make his legs go weak but loose enough that her palm slipped over his length in smooth, easy strokes. With her playing her thumb over his tip every time she reached it, spreading sensation through receptive nerves and deep into his balls, Cody wasn’t certain how long he could last. The lack of physical connection in his life had every part of his body tensing, reaching in greedy anticipation, a thickening swell that pushed him right to the edge of all control.

  Maybe for her, too, though. It seemed Olivia’s orgasm took them both by surprise. Her pussy clamped down on his fingers as he thrust a second inside her. Judging by the way she jerked, the way her eyes widened, Olivia hadn’t expected such a reaction. Fighting against the rippling contractions that drew her inner walls into satisfying inflexibility, Cody resorted to pushing, shoving deeper.

  Her entire body shuddered. She tipped her head back. A ragged moan escaped her, as if her climax had strangled all other sound.

  He wanted to kiss her. With the long line of Olivia’s throat gilded by an errant ray of sunshine, Cody wanted to lick her, suck her skin and leave his mark. He wanted to see her naked, press her to his body and sink his dick into her over and over again.

  He wondered how much of his land he’d have to give her for that to happen.

  Chilled by the sudden rush of cynicism, Cody pulled his fingers from her pussy and stepped back. The smell of her pleasure coated his knuckles and he couldn’t resist licking the taste of her from his skin. Olivia gasped and reached for him.

  “No, I’m okay.” Cody spun, putting his back to her.

  A heartbeat later, she’d pressed to his spine, wrapping her arm around his hips and gripping his cock again. She stroked. “You didn’t come yet.”

  “I can’t afford to,” he murmured. “Your prices are too high.”

  A lethal blow. He felt her outrage in the stiffening of her body against his back and her offense in the clutch of her hand as she drew it over his length. Olivia was strong, but his dick liked her abuse—despite the fact that her touch went from teasing and warm to robotic and impersonal between one pull and the next.

  “I’m sure it will just take another minute,” she sneered. “Mutual benefit keeps a business partnership strong, after all.”

  She’d overestimated his control. Two more tugs had Cody’s balls contracting. Off-guard, mad at himself and furious with her, he had no reserves left to fight against the rolling bliss her hand conveyed. Heat barreled through him, burning his cock and scorching his heart. The tip of his penis seemed to explode as she swiped her thumb over it, releasing thick ropes of ejaculate to stain the ground alongside the mulberries.

  Olivia immediately released him. “Now you’re free to leave.”

  He swayed but braced himself. Cold, a curious loneliness curling around him and making him feel heavy, Cody buttoned his pants as he watched her storm off down the narrow track. Then, with the memory of just how big that feral pig had been resurging in his mind, he raced after her.

  Pushing through the brush, Cody saw Olivia and her horse silhouetted against the lowering sun, halfway across the open plain and riding full out. His horse thundered behind her. With a sigh and a heavy burden of mixed emotions, Cody turned toward the long path leading to the Double O.

  * * * *

  He was still reeling when he arrived at the hospital the next morning. A sleepless night had Cody stumbling through the doorway into Eugene’s room and collapsing onto the bedside chair. His emotional chaos wasn’t just due to the woman who’d turned his world upside down under a mulberry tree, though. The Double O was a responsibility Cody couldn’t take on. He had to tell his grandfather that he wanted to sell the family ranch.

  Eugene lifted a drooping brow. “What’s wrong, boy? Where is Olivia?”

  “I don’t know.” Cody shrugged “She’s at her home, I suppose.”

  “Then what are you doing here? You should be off romancing that girl, if you knew what was good for you.”

  Ignoring that train of thought completely, Cody said, “I had another meeting with the Great Gas & Petrol Company yesterday.”

  The heart monitor behind the bed picked up its pace. “You’re not selling the Double O.”

  “We need the money—”

  “Then lease the damned acreage! Let them put their godawful rig on my land and tear up the ground and poison the grass and whatever else they need to do in that one area! Not the whole thing, Cody, not all of it.”

  “What kind of say do you think either of us will have?” Frustration washed over Cody until he struggled to keep from screaming. The strain was more than evident in his voice, however, as he exerted great effort to use a soothing tone. “My father—”

  “Doesn’t have a damned thing to do with it!” Eugene’s words ran together. His speech was getting more difficult to decipher and his color was too high for anyone’s peace of mind, but his outburst was emphatic enough that Cody couldn’t mistake what he’d said. “The land was set aside for you, boy. You’re the executor. You’re the sole beneficiary of everything to do with the acreage, the house and all of its contents.”

  “You’re kidding.” Cody went numb to the tips of his toes.

  Eugene snorted. “Do you think I’d trust your parents with my most valued possession? Do you think I’d trust your father, who hasn’t even been on this continent in half a decade with land here? I’ve got money set aside for them, but everything else is yours.”

  “I… I…” Cody slouched back against the chair’s cushion, grateful he was already seated as the shock shivered down his spine. Suddenly, the thought of all the money on offer for the land was even more breathtaking than before—but so was the insistent knowledge that the Double O was his.

  Still… “I can’t take it. I can’t… My job… I don’t live here! I don’t know how to do anything on a ranch.”

  “I’m leaving the Double O to you,” Eugene said more quietly and carefully, “because I trust you to keep it safe. You can’t sell it, Cody.”

  His. Not maybe someday. Not at a future date when his father had run through everything the property had to offer and passed the remnants on to Cody. Not at a distant time he couldn’t even foresee.

  Cody felt as if the world had begun to spin on a slightly different axis.

  He shook his head. “I can’t… What the hell would I do with the Double O?”

  Chapter Seven

  Olivia tried not to fidget. Caught between surprise that Cody had accepted her dinner invitation, relief that he hadn’t brought up what had happened under the mulberry tree the other day and nervousness over seeing him again, she was more than uncomfortable. Watching him look around her house piled on more anticipation, dread and guilt than she truly
would have thought.

  She wanted him to like her home, but she was starting to worry that she also wanted him to like her.

  “Well?” she asked, unable to take his silence another minute.

  “Well, what? It’s nice,” he said.

  “Nice? If it’s so nice, why does your face look like that?” Inside—where Cody couldn’t see—Olivia winced at the sharpness in her tone.

  He drew his eyebrows together in the first expression she’d seen from him since he’d stepped through the double doors of her ranch-house-turned-bed-and-breakfast. “I can’t see my face from here, Olivia, so I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

  “That.” She wagged her finger under his nose as his lips drew straight and, once again, his eyes went blank. “That annoying expression that is no expression at all, like I’m something you can’t even bother to be disappointed in because I am so worthless compared to—”

  “Sounds like you’re reading too much into things.” Cody un-beetled his eyebrows and sent one winging up toward his hairline. “All I said was your home was nice.”

  “You said it like a teacher, after I handed in a failing assignment.”

  He shrugged. “Well, the wood paneling is a nice touch and I’m sure the animal heads are tastefully arranged, as far as those things go—”

  “People expect shit like that in a lodge.”

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  Cody spun on his heel, head tipped back, gaze roaming the walls that were predominantly covered with oil paintings of ranch life, mixed-media art involving leather and rope and a few softer things that brought the soul of the plains into the house. Only the one accent wall had paneling, and there were very few animal heads—two deer and a mounted longhorn skull—placed very high up where they would be less obtrusive.

  “I just wouldn’t have thought this would suit you,” Cody continued.

  His perceptiveness surprised her. “It doesn’t. This is my mother’s vision of what the place should look like, and everyone else seems to love it. Magazines have taken pictures in here.”