opened her hand, sliding his thumb across her palm, and then placed the .44 in it. She instinctively tightened her fingers around it. He turned her hand first one way, then the other, inspecting it. His hands were large and warm. “Looks fine to me,” he declared. “Go to the bar.”
She hesitated for a moment then stepped over to it. She gripped it firmly because she knew the kick would be fierce. She raised it and waited a full two beats before squeezing the trigger. It didn’t take much and the gun felt like it exploded in her hands. The shot hit the paper target, but not the black silhouette.
“Okay,” he said. “You know what to expect now. Try again.”
She re-set her feet and took a second shot. It hit just barely on the right shoulder. She felt Tex come up behind her. “Better,” he said. He ran his hands down the length of her bare arms and took hold of her wrists, raising the gun level a third time. She felt his body pressed up against hers and it was hard not to lean back into that solid frame.
“Just relax,” he said quietly into her ear, and she could do anything but. “Breathe normally,” he told her. “Squeeze the trigger. You already know this. Just focus.”
Abby licked her lips nervously, and steadied her aim. Before she could fire, Tex’s hand slid around her throat. She froze. He wasn’t hurting her. In fact his large hand only felt like a delicate brush of skin. Her heart started pounding. She tried to turn to him but he exerted the tiniest amount of pressure, and she stilled. His other hand had felt warm on her arms, but the one on her neck was downright scorching. She fought the urge to hyperventilate.
“What are you doing?” she managed to get out.
“Relax. Breathe, and squeeze. In between heartbeats.”
“Yeah, I know. But what-”
“I’m feeling your pulse,” he told her. “Otherwise how do I know you’re doing it right?”
Abby tried to glance down, but couldn’t. Ultimately she was probably glad she couldn’t because she was dead certain her nipples were visible through her lacy bra. She would die if Tex saw that. What would he do?
Oh, God, she thought. Please don’t touch me here in the shooting range. Oh, God, she thought, please touch me here in the shooting range. Knowing that there was another person in the booth next to them made it all seem so fucking wrong. And yet...
“Fire the gun, Abby,” he said firmly, jolting her back to reality.
She aimed, waited, then squeezed. She hit closer to the heart.
“Very good,” he said in a soft voice. He brought his arms around her again and took the gun from her. He released the clip and then stepped away from her. “Don’t forget about Maria’s tonight.” And with that, he walked out.
Abby leaned against the bar to catch her breath. What the hell had just happened? she wondered. And then she wondered if it would happen again.
CHAPTER SIX
Tex held the Eagle and the clip in his hand and nodded to Cappy at the front desk as he opened the front door and headed out into the daylight. He had to get out of there before he bent Abby over and fucked the hell out of her. Her hair smelled deliciously sweet and the rapid beat of the pulse in her throat had given him a raging hard-on. Was she scared or turned on or both? She couldn’t have been as turned on as he was.
Mark. She’d called him Mark and damn if that didn’t do all kinds of things to him as he thought about Abby underneath him, legs spread wide for him by his chains, whispering his name, begging him to take her. He took a deep breath and swung up into the cab of the Hummer. Slow. Slow was the name of the game. He had to take it slow with her. But she was like a ripe little plum sitting on a windowsill and he damn if he didn’t want to devour her one bite at a time.
He stopped at the garage and dropped off the supplies he’d picked
C.B. Salem
Ellen Hopkins
Carolyn Faulkner
Gilbert L. Morris
Jessica Clare
Zainab Salbi
Joe Dever
Rosemary Nixon
Jeff Corwin
Ross MacDonald