Hot Blue Velvet (3 page)

The girl looked like she might break out in tears at any minute, so Kanda’s feeling softened a bit. “It can’t be as bad as all that.”

Bren squared her shoulders. “It was great and then…”

Kanda tried to keep her smile pasted on. “I can’t see you as the type to two-time and I know Trev ain’t that type neither.”

Bren shook her head. “No, but I did mess it up.”

“So?”

The seemingly shy cook gave her a baffled stare.

“I mean…whatcha gonna do about it?”

“I need to go somewhere. I’m trying to think of a way to get him back.”

“You still gonna cook for the triple?”

“Oh, yeah. It’s the only income I got right now.”

Kanda stared at her for a minute and was surprised she felt a soft spot for this girl. “Okay. It ain’t none of my business, but all I can say is—Trevor is stubborn…very stubborn. If you want him back? Don’t give up. Stick to him.” Kanda smiled. “Think of it like he’s a runaway bull and you got his brand all hot and ready.”

Bren’s eyes grew wide.

At her expression, Kanda let out a huge laugh. “What I mean is you gotta go cowgirl on his ass. You might even have ta wrestle him down and tie him up.”

At the funny and outrageous euphemism and Kanda’s brash advice, Bren’s eyes got even larger in her face.

Kanda laughed even harder. “Yeah, it does sound kinky. What I really mean is meet him head-butt for head-butt…” Her voice trailed away as she realized she was getting involved and she swore to herself she wouldn’t. Clearing her throat, she turned suddenly serious. “I guess I ain’t the right one to give out advice to the lovelorn. Anyway, how can I help ya?”

“I need a ride to Victoria.”

Kanda held back the question of why, on the grounds that she really didn’t want to know. “I can loan the trail truck to you?”

Bren looked shocked. “You can? I mean—you will?”

“Yep, I could. I want my baby brother happy. Marge thinks you’re the one who can do that.”

Bren seemed to tear up again.

“Now don’t go cryin’ and stuff. I don’t always agree with the old lady.” She gazed steadily at Miss Plush. “But this time, we finally see eye to eye on sumpthin’.” She fished the keys out of her pocket. “They just gassed it up and it should make it there and back.”

Looking relieved, Bren took the keys.

“Have it back by Sunday night, okay?”

Swiping at a tear, she nodded her head.

“Oh, and don’t be cryin’ to Trev to get him to come back. That’s what that fluff head housekeeper did and it won’t work.”

Miss Plush raised her chin and she looked determined. “I wouldn’t try that, I don’t want him to feel sorry for me—I want him to love me.”

This time it was Kanda who blinked her eyes in surprise. “Well then, Miss Plush, get your equipment together and get ready to lasso ’em in!”

Now it was Bren who laughed. “Well, I never wrestled a cow, let alone a man.”

Kanda gazed at her and shook her head. “Sometimes animals and men are the same damn thing.”

Another stunned look passed across the cook’s face.

“Never mind.” She slapped her on the back and chuckled. “Just…be honest, be straight up with him.” She rolled her eyes. “There I go again, giving out sweetheart advice.” She got back up on her horse. “It’s not like I have one or anything to speak of.” She sighed and looked toward the train office.

“Well, you should!” Bren blurted out.

Startled, Kanda swung her gaze down. “What?”

“Well, just look at ya. You’re built! Buxom, tight , with those blue eyes and that dark hair?” She shook her head. “What guy wouldn’t want you?”

Kanda nearly let go of her reins. The shock of the girl’s words kind of threw her off her usual game. “You think so, uh?”

Bren nodded her head vigorously. “Dang right! You’re such a hot babe, you should be swattin’ ’em away!”

Kanda laughed and shook her head. “Nope. I guess the man for me sure as hell ain’t in Flatonia.”
Or anywhere in the world where I would meet him.
She smiled down at the cook. “Okay, can I ask where ya going…I mean, in case you get waylaid or sumpthin’?”

Miss Plush took a piece of paper from her pocket and wrote down the address. “I ain’t ever been to her ranch since she moved there, but this is where I’m headed.”

Kanda took it and tucked into her shirt pocket. “Okay then, see ya on Sunday.”

Nodding her head, Miss Plush smiled a little as she watched Kanda ride away.

Damn Trevor and Travis. Always something up with those two. Living on the ranch was like being in a fucking insane soap opera, half the time lately. If they could just keep their dammed jeans buttoned, my life would be easier.

*~*~*~*

S
he’d ridden for a while over the Triple K acreage, toward the ranch and was feeling a bit strange now after the odd conversation with the new cook.
Why didn’t she have a man?
There were plenty of men around her, but they all worked for her and that didn’t make her none too attractive, probably.

Just being out here on the open land, life seemed so simple and uncomplicated. She remembered just then something her daddy used to say,
Ride like there’s no tomorrow, because you never know if there’ll be one.
That had been the best advice she’d ever been given and she tried to live by it.

Kanda sat up straighter in her saddle.
What the hell is all this kinda thinkin’ all of the sudden anyway? I’ve never even thought about this stuff most days.

Maybe it was what her sassy old mom said just last night. ‘You ain’t getting any younger, Kan. Your brothers seem to have the right idea, getting mates and maybe gonna settle down.’

Kanda had answered the same as she always had. ‘There ain’t a man who is man enough to do the job!’

Her mom had made that sour face that Marge Kincade was famous for. ‘Oh, yeah? Well, one of these days, you’ll come face to face with him. I’m just hoping I’ll be alive to see it!’

Shaking her head in disgust, she’d gone to her room.
Yeah, fat chance in hell. A man who could impress her? He didn’t exist.

Yeah, that was her mom’s statement to her, almost daily.
’Get yourself a man and a life.’
The thought of her mother and what she was up to just lately made her feel pretty pissed off as she rode wild and free across the large spans of land which would surely be all hers someday.
You can own land and cows, but can you really own a heart?
My heart is too locked up to even be reached.

With a huff, she let her reins loose and slowed her pace down as she looked out over the wonderful Texas countryside that greeted her every day when she got up in the morning. Her mom was at it again, and she seemed determined to change this land. Marge was getting’ more difficult by the day. They’d had a real bad argument at the breakfast table about it, just this morning.

Marge Kincade was a widowed woman and she’d made the ranch the success it was today. She’d operated it ever since her husband died and it was always understood that Kanda was being groomed to run it on her own someday.

This whole ideal was funny to all the ranch hands and locals, since Kanda had two strappin’ men for brothers. However, neither brother had ever shown an interest. Her brothers were identical twins. In looks only, though. While one partied the nights away and had no care for business, the other worked hard, but wanted his own ranch.

Marge just informed her this morning that she had an idea about how to expand the ranch, and keep the profits up. This was what caused the argument and what had Kanda’s stomach tied in knots right this minute.

A mineral plant! Marge was convinced about it; she wanted the Triple K to harvest the rich soil that was natural to Fayette County.

She couldn’t stand the thought of them digging holes in the land; of having trucks and ugly steel buildings all over the ranch.

Interrupting her troubled thoughts, she spotted a flurry of dust rolling across the valley and she was puzzled. Everybody knew this was Kincade land.
Who in the hell would be stupid enough to trespass here?

She spurred her horse on and came up over the rise. Dust clouded her view.
Talk about eatin’ someone’s dust!
It looked to be some kind of vehicle heading out to Flat Rock. Somebody was 4 wheelin’ on her land?
Well, whatever dumbass drove that vehicle was about to eat some Flatonia dirt when I catch up with ’em.

The dust cloud slowed down and she finally caught up with the vehicle. It was a Hummer.
Who the hell would be driving that monstrosity—all the way out here? Probably some city man out to prove his Hummer was bigger and badder than anyone else’s.
She envisioned flattening his tires and smashing some glass.

Finally, she came up closer and saw that the vehicle was parked, the driver’s door hung wide open with the engine still running. More perplexed than ever, she looked all around.
No one in sight? Where in the hell—?

Her horse was spooked by something and it reared up. She’d dropped the reins while looking for the intruder and she slid backward from the horse, her body hitting the ground with a dust-clouded thump. The sky whirled above her, while her tailbone felt like cement had been rammed up her—

“Are you okay?”

She couldn’t focus as her entire body was still absorbing the ripples of pain from the fall. Then a face came into view.

His eyes were what she registered first. Blue. But not just the average pair of blue eyes. Electric blue was the description that came to her mind. Then, his lips were next. Full and enticing—yes some nice, strong looking lips. His jaw came into sight and was well defined. Top all of it off with a pair of dark brows and dark raven hair and you had yourself the best-looking man she’d ever seen.

He smiled and stood above her.

Her baffled eyes took in long legs and thickly muscled thighs, encased in faded jeans. A trim waist was next on the visual journey, along with a black tee shirt that stretched tightly over a well-muscled chest. His arms were like banded steel and he had broad shoulders.

What the hell? I must be dreaming—I‘m looking at prime rib!

TWO

Roosters, Chicks and Feathers

She’s the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success—wrong by wrong.

Highway 70 headed to Victoria, Texas

I
t took Bren a while to get used to the gears in the big truck. She knew she was pissing drivers off, because they kept honking at her and passing her by. Better to be noticed than ignored, right? Well, maybe not in this case. It’d been difficult enough to even steer this monster of a vehicle, let alone drive it fast.

She was now looking for a small sign-post somewhere just before the town of Victoria. Squinting and desperately trying to see the side of the road, she slowed the truck down. She spotted a sign painted in red of all colors.

Plush Ranch

There it is!
She turned onto the road, amazed that it was paved too. How did her mama afford that? Most of these ranches had dirt roads. Why even the Triple K had mostly dirt until you got right up to the main house.

After about a half a mile, she had to slow down. It looked like there was something going on ahead. She pulled over and turned the truck off. What she saw didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

There were three men. One was working on the ground and the other two were on ladders. All three were working on an archway over the road and all three were shirtless. They were well muscled and even looked as if they’d been oiled up like they did on guys in a photo shoot.

This all may have sounded innocent, except for the row of lawn chairs on each side of the road. Women in various states of dress were reclining in those chairs. About a dozen women. Some wore bikinis, some just shorts. Most were older and a few looked to be in their thirties maybe, and most all of them were curvy type women, like Bren herself was. They all had drinks in their hands while doing catcall whistling and making jokes.

“Take your jeans off!” A blonde woman yelled.

Another woman whistled loudly and all of them clapped. “Let’s see them tools…baby!”

What the hell was going on?
Bren gazed back up at the guys on ladders. They were buff looking men and the kind that made your mouth water too. Did construction guys usually look this sexy while swinging a hammer? Her wide eyes swung over to the one guy that was on the ground. She wasn’t sure that she was seeing reality as she took it all in.

He turned around and was smiling at the women in the row of lawn chairs. His tool belt hung low on his jeans. He looked like a model; tall and well built, his pecs shining in the sun. He skillfully twirled his hammer and shoved it down into his tool belt.

What Bren saw next defied every natural human law in her mind.

With sexy skill, he sashayed over to the chairs as if he were dancing to music that wasn’t really playing except in his own mind.

Wondering how a man could sashay, Bren shook her head as if to clear her befuddled vision.

Mister Sexy Tool Man reached down, unhooking his belt.

The women went wild. They were yelling,
take it off, take it off!

Then, he dropped the tool belt to the ground and all hell broke loose, as some of the girls stood up outta their chairs and whooped like crazy.

With a determined sexy slowness, he lowered his fingers to his jean buttons.

“Yeah, baby!” A redheaded woman shouted exuberantly. “Show us your hammer, sugar meat!”

In absolute shock, Bren just stood next to the truck. This whole thing was so bizarre and she wondered if she’d found an outdoor Chippendales club or something out here in the middle of nowhere. Men stripping and all these chubby women acting like men do when seeing pole dancers at a strip joint?

The sexy worker unbuttoned his jeans.

Oh Lordy!
Bren shivered with a little unwanted anticipation. I wonder if one of those women is gonna actually—

Sure enough, the woman he was standing in front of slipped what looked like a fifty bill, down into his jeans. Then, she seemed to shout as she must’ve grabbed ahold of his…tool. Gasping loudly, she let go and sat back in her lawn chair.

Tool man rolled his jeans lower and reached down as if he were actually gonna lift out his…hammer.

The women all seemed to go quiet while staring at his crotch area as though they were in a stricken state of awe. The seemingly tense lust-filled silence that fell all around was full of the same kind of anxious feeling of when you were waiting for the axe to fall or something. Bren almost snickered as she thought that these women were waiting for blue jeans to fall and wanted some other kind of tool besides an axe!

Motioning his head to the guys on the ladders, he gave the transfixed girls a sly looking smile.

Simultaneously, Bren and the rest of the women swung their entranced gazes up.

The other two guys were unbuttoning their jeans too.

Raising a shaky hand to her mouth, she couldn’t help that a bit of drool had slipped from her lip. The lust in the air would have affected anyone. Three sexy god like men were about to strip bare out here in the hot Texas sun! You’d have to inhuman or very old to not be affected. Why, these men could make the deadest, driest pussy rise and gush from a frigid grave! They were all like gloriously trained sex magnets; it was like the very air was electrically charged with fuck-me Pheromones.
What was going on here?

Before she knew it, all three men lowered their jeans as though they’d choreographed this wanton routine before. They were all very well-endowed, and from the erect…hammers, standing rigid and throbbing in the sunlight, this all seemed to turn them on too.

The women were shouting again, and some rushed from their chairs up along the ladders. All the combined female shouting and the wild laughter became almost deafening.

Bren realized suddenly about how even the most well mannered genteel woman could and would lose control if they were manipulated in just the right way. Hell, these men could have a woman on her knees, ready to—

A gunshot rang out and she nearly leapt out of her skin.

All motion stopped as most of the women were frozen in mid-frenzy with their mouths gaping.

Looking all around, Bren tried to see where the shot had come from.

There in the road, just beyond the arch…stood her mother. Dressed in all her finery too. All decked out in purple leather, along with a lace boustierre, uplifting her already ample breasts. “That’s enough!” Daisy Plush shouted. “You’re gonna topple those men down.”

The women near the ladders backed away.

“Okay, here’s the deal and you Southern hussies know the drill.” Daisy lowered her shotgun. “Fernando…” She nodded toward the guy on the ground. “…Brad and Kevin,” she snickered. “They gotta make a living too.” She chuckled.

Bren stood frozen. That chuckle always meant something wicked was definitely afoot.

“In a half hour, up at the house. The auction will be commencing’. You want some beef?”

The women all hollered and whistled in unison.

“Well, then, wait for the menu and prices before you order your steak!” Daisy laughed and watched as all the women folded up their chairs, gathered their drinks and hats, then made their way up the road.

What the hell was her Mama doing?
Bren watched everyone leave.

“Baby doll!” her mother shouted and rushed over to the truck.

Staring at the receding group as though she’d imagined the entire scene, Bren was still shocked. “Hello, Mama.”

Daisy was wearing leather…purple leather and even being an older curvy woman, she looked amazing. She swooped Bren up into a huge crinkling leather covered hug. “I didn’t know you was comin’!”

She hugged her back with a distracted pat to the slick leather along her mom’s back and then stepped away from her. “What’s going on here, Mama?”

Daisy Plush grinned at her.

“I mean what kinda—what…? Those men and the wild women—what the fuck?” She was stupefied and stuttering.

Tossing her head back, Daisy let out a loud chortle.

Bren felt a little angry at her reaction. “With the half-naked guys and these wild women? What are ya doing?”

Daisy swiped a tear of hilarity from her cheek. “Just a little ole bit a fun is all. Fun and money.”

“Okay, so you’re not gonna tell me the truth, are ya?”

Daisy Plush grabbed her arm and pointed up at the ladder where one of the hot-bodied men stood just a minute ago. “I was staging the grand opening.”

Gazing up, Bren finally noticed a scrolled sign at the top of the arch.

The Plush Rooster Ranch

Oh—My—God!
She even jumped back a little with the stunning but somewhat confusing revelation and swung her stunned eyes over to her mom.

In lavender spike heeled boots, Daisy strolled up the road ahead of her, her leather scrunching with the sway of her plentiful hips. “Just leave the truck here, sweetie. I’ll have one of my…studs retrieve it.”

*~*~*~*

Somewhere on the Triple K Ranch

T
he man knelt down and that handsome face was a mere few inches away. “Can you stand?”

Kanda blinked her eyes at the sound of his voice. He had a foreign accent, like British sounding or something, to his words. She’d had the wind knocked out of her all right, but this man knocked the sense from her now.

Looking concerned at her continued silence, he then scooped his arms underneath her.

She wanted to shout that she wasn’t some ninny that couldn’t do for herself, but no words came out of her mouth.

His smile grew as he stood upright with absolute ease, even while holding her weight.

She studied his face closely, as he stood there for a long moment.

He never even seemed to wince with the bulk of her lax body in his arms. “Can you speak?” he asked as she stared at him.

She shook her head slightly.
I could, but I might just be dreaming or hallucinating anyway, so I will keep my big mouth shut until I know for sure.

“Okay, well. I guess I should take you back to camp. The hospital is fifty miles away.”

Camp? He has a camp nearby? How dare he camp on my land!
Before she could ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, he swung her around and walked around the Humvee.

Gasping at the powerful swing of his bulky body, she wrapped her arms around his neck. She put her face against the curve of his shoulder. He smelled so delicious.
Maybe, it would be a good idea to find out what he was up to and why he was here, before I tell him who I am?

Placing her into the leather seat, he smiled again. “I will tether your horse to the bumper and drive real slow. Don’t be worried about your stag there, all right?”

Stag?
Kanda wondered at the odd term for her horse.

After a couple of minutes, he hopped in through the driver’s side and shut the door. “That was a real knacker you took.” He put the Hummer into drive and the vehicle lurched forward. “Don’t ya worry nun, I’ll go slow while your animal follows.”