Carol Lynne

With rain sprinkling down on her face, she managed to open her eyes just a crack. “Where am I?” she thought. The hard surface under her was cold and wet. She tried to raise herself off the uncomfortable surface only to experience pain so intense her world clouded and the darkness once again took her.

Sirens, she heard them getting closer. She managed to open her eyes again to see a stranger’s face looking down at her. “Don’t try to move, ma’am, help is almost here.”

Help, now she was going to get help, when she’d needed it for the past two days. It was too late for help. Her body was already dead. Killed in a dark room with a knife and a branding iron by the man she’d once called father.

With dust still settling on the dry New Mexico ranch, Jake and his old hound dog Blue walked toward the ranch house. Jake took the stairs two at a time then looked back for Blue. “What’s the matter, old boy, did I wear you out today?” Blue slowly made his way up the stairs. He went right to the comfortable cushioned settee and jumped up. Within a minute he was sound asleep. Jake shook his head and grinned. “You’d better not let Cree catch you on the furniture, he’ll make Blue stew for dinner.”

Shaking the dust from his dark brown hair, he entered the kitchen tired and sore. Jake spotted Cree, the local sheriff, bent over getting a beer out of the fridge. “Damn, that’s one sexy ass,” he said.

Cree stood and it took his breath away as it did every time he saw him. With shoulder-length blue-black hair and eyes the color of the moss growing down by the creek, Cree Sommers was devastating to look at. He stood six-foot, three in stocking feet and had the body of the Indian warriors of his mother’s tribe. Wide, strong shoulders narrowed to an incredible six-pack abdomen and lean hips.

Cree looked Jake up and down. “Oh yeah, well, why don’t you come on over and give this fine ass a hello.” He grinned and bent over to get another beer out for Jake.

“Gladly,” he said with a smile and walked smoothly over to Cree. Jake grabbed a handful of Cree’s ass and squeezed. “Man, I’ve missed you this week. How was the conference?”

Before Cree could answer, Jake kissed him with all the love and passion he’d been storing up. The kiss turned into an erotic game of charge and retreat with both of their tongues dueling for position.

“Boring as hell.” Cree set down the forgotten bottles of beer and began tugging at the snaps on Jake’s dirty chambray shirt. “God, Jake, I need to feel your skin, it’s been a long week.” Cree deftly removed his shirt and began licking Jake’s neck. “I want you, naked and in me now.”

Fantastic, just what he’d wanted to hear.

Jake gave Cree one of his smoother than silk smiles and tugged Cree’s shirt out of his pants and began unbuttoning it as fast as his fingers would allow. “Take your gun and your pants off and I’ll deal with the shirt.”

“Oh good, skin.”

Jake loved Cree’s skin, all bronzed and smooth. He managed to get Cree’s shirt off and then started on his own pants, which wasn’t easy with his steel-hard erection pressing against his zipper. Cree was dropping his khaki uniform pants to the kitchen floor when the phone rang.

“No, no, not now. Damn.”

Here Jake finally had Cree naked and he was gonna have to share him again.

“How about we pretend we don’t hear it,” Jake said, kissing Cree’s stomach. His skin felt like velvet on his tongue. Numerous muscles rippled under Jake’s lips letting him know Cree was affected by his touch.

“You know I can’t do that, cowboy. What if there’s an emergency down at the station?” Cree sighed. He reached for the phone as Jake continued on his journey down Cree’s stomach to his rock-hard cock. His erection jumped up to hit Jake on the chin just as he tried to put it in his mouth.

Oh, fruit of the gods.

Cree’s cock was warm and smooth. Cree reached down to grab Jake’s hair enough to hold on and began a slow thrust in and out of Jake’s mouth. He reached for the phone. “Triple…” Cree coughed and cleared his throat. “Triple Spur Ranch, Cree speaking.”

Cree listened to the caller on the phone and stopped thrusting into Jake’s mouth.

“Yes, this is Jake Baker’s ranch, one moment and I’ll get him for you,” Cree looked down at Jake.

Jake stopped sucking to look up at him. “Jake, phone for you, it’s a hospital in Kansas City.”

Jake looked at Cree, trying to determine what was going on. Cree shrugged his shoulders and handed him the phone. “This is Jake Baker, may I help you.” Sharing concerned looks with Cree, Jake listened to the caller on the other end.

Cree reached out and wrapped his arms around Jake. He began kissing him on the neck in silent support or pure horniness, Jake wasn’t sure which.

Somehow, Jake knew this wasn’t going to be good. His knuckles tightened on the phone.

“Mr. Baker, this is Mary English from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, and we have a patient that was brought in to the emergency room with no identification.” Jake held his breath waiting for her to continue. “She was carrying a picture in her back pocket with two men under a ranch sign. The back of the picture had Jacob Baker and Cree Sommers, Junctionville, New Mexico, written on it. We contacted the state police department in New Mexico and they gave us this number.”

Gripping the phone until his knuckles turned white, Jake felt the air leave his lungs for a moment and then managed to ask, “Can you give me a description of the woman in question?” Please no, don’t let it be her. Anyone but her.

“Yes, of course. She’s about five-foot, four-inches tall, appears to be in her mid-twenties, approximately one hundred and ten pounds, with long black hair and blue eyes. I don’t mean to worry you but the young lady in question is in a coma and we’re hoping for some medical information. It appears she has been through quite an ordeal recently and in the past.”

His knees threatening to give out, Jake reached for the wall. Cree wrapped his arms tighter around Jake and held him upright. Jake cleared his throat and answered, even though at that minute he wanted to cry. “I know the woman. Her name is Jennifer Barnes and she’s my stepsister. I’ll be on the next flight out of Santa Fe to Kansas City.”

“Thank you, Mr. Baker, I’ll have the social worker standing by to speak with you upon arrival.”

Cree saw the distress on Jake’s face and took the phone from him and replaced the receiver.

Jake couldn’t move for a minute. His thoughts swirled around in his head until he felt Cree turn his face to his and kiss him softly. “What’s happened to our girl, Jake?”

Jake looked into the dark green eyes of the man he loved and tried to talk around the lump in his throat. “There’s been some kind of accident and Jenny’s in a coma in Kansas City. They…they got our names off a picture they found in her pocket and called the state police to track me down. Do you know how Jenny got a picture of the two of us standing underneath the Triple Spur Ranch sign?” Jake blew out a calming breath. “I guess it doesn’t matter now, the important thing is they found us. I have to go to the airport and get to my Jenny.”

Cree looked at Jake more intently and fisted his hands in his hair. “You mean we have to get to the airport and get to our Jenny.”