The Hunter's Prey Page 6

  But Jimmy stood by the door next to Miss Jessie, calm and proud. He looked like a gentleman waiting for his guests to be seated, rather than the typical nervous client. Miss Jessie wasn’t quite frowning, which meant that she didn’t like his behavior but she couldn’t manage to change it.

  A rustle ran through the boarders as they saw him. I was prepared for his good looks and fine clothes but they’d never seen the like before. Linda and Clare sat up straighter, openly preening, while some of the others twitched their clothes and struck poses. They only used the attitudes permitted under Miss Jessie’s rules but they still tried to catch his attention.

  Jimmy ignored them until Miss Jessie nodded at him. Then he strolled directly to me and held out his hand. I put mine into it and he lifted me to my feet, as easily as any Victorian gentleman at a dance. He tucked my hand into the crook of his arm and sauntered toward the door, which led to the boarders’ rooms. The other boarders murmured but didn’t say anything out loud. I was as surprised as they were by his behavior.

  I led him down the long hallway until we reached my room, careful to slow down at every change of ceiling height or flooring. The hallway was at least straight but it showed all the signs of having been built as casually as the rooms it opened to.

  “Would you care to sit down?” I invited, as soon as I closed the door behind us. I was pink with embarrassment at seeing him here but I wanted to touch him. I wanted to do things with him that I’d heard whispers of but never tried. I was sure that he knew activities that would scandalize Miss Jessie.

  “If you will join me, Miss Smith.”

  I nodded and perched on the edge of the bed. I was glad that he obviously hadn’t paid with a chicken, as most clients did. Those birds were messy and noisy, which would have ruined his elegant suit.

  “Uh, the longest you can stay here is fifteen minutes,” I started with the last part of the standard speech. And stopped on that note when his eyebrows went up. It was the first time I’d seen him surprised.

  “Fifteen minutes, my dear? Forgive me for asking this, but is fifteen minutes usually long enough for your satisfaction?”

  I stared at him. When had my satisfaction started to matter?

  Jimmy smiled at me, a very masculine look of knowledge and anticipation.

  “We will share an hour together, Anne. Then you can tell me how much time you prefer a gentleman to spend on your pleasure.”

  I blinked, considering how long it had taken the few previous times when I’d really enjoyed matters. His arm slid around me and I leaned against him, quite happy that he’d moved to the bed and was taking charge. I did feel obliged to ask a question.

  “But Miss Jessie’s rules say . . .” My voice trailed off when he kissed my hair, then lifted a strand and smelled it. I stared at him in the mirror, shocked and delighted at the gentleness. My senses started to consider him even more intriguing than my mind’s estimation of his manners.

  “Relax, sweet Anne. I will deal with Miss Jessie.”

  I nodded a little, afraid to break the connection with his hand. He played with my hair, seeming to enjoy my curls and the weight against his hand. I closed my eyes when he kissed my hand. He trailed kisses over every inch, then turned it over and nipped the mound at the base of my thumb. I gasped and jumped as a surge shot straight from his teeth into my body’s center. I moaned when he licked the drop of blood and kissed away the small hurt.

  Jimmy spent a very long time on my hands before his mouth found my wrists. I stroked his head as he nuzzled and nipped each pulse point into life. I unbuttoned my dress and slid a sleeve down my shoulder, wordlessly encouraging him to continue farther up that arm.

  I think Miss Jessie knocked on the door while my dress was down to my waist. I’m not sure though because I wasn’t thinking very clearly by then. I didn’t hear her knock again but I think the Angel Gabriel could have sounded his horn without my hearing.

  I do know that the feel of his hands and mouth on my breasts excited me like nothing I had ever felt before. He didn’t grab at them the way so many men did. Instead he traced every vein from my shoulders and ribs out till it ended. He stayed away from my aureoles until I was frankly begging him to continue. Then he suckled me in long steady pulls, bringing as much of my breast as he could into his mouth’s hot, wet warmth. He encouraged the other breast with those long fingers until I was talking language that I’d never thought to say.

  His hand found me deep below. I twisted against it and tried to encourage it. I needed more of it than the single finger that traced my folds.

  “Show me what you want, my dear.” I shook my head, unable to imagine how to tell a man what I’d never discussed before. But he asked me again, that lovely voice of his flowing into my ears and through my body.

  Finally I grabbed his hand and placed it on my bud, begging him to get to work. He rewarded me by attending exactly the spot that craved him, varying the pressure and stroke until I cursed and clutched at him. The climax found parts of me that had never joined in pleasure before.

  I opened my eyes to find him leaning over me, smiling.

  “Why?” I managed to croak.

  Jimmy shrugged. “I enjoyed watching you hit your peak. And now, we shall explore conversations with other parts of your body.”

  My jaw dropped. If he could manage that with just a few fingers, what else could he do? I turned my head away, trying to recover myself somewhat and saw the bedside clock. Twenty minutes had passed. “What about Miss Jessie? You should be leaving.”

  “Do you want me to?”

  “No! But she always insists.” I stopped when his finger touched my mouth. I scarcely breathed while he traced the outline of my lips. My tongue crept out, found the callused tip, and delicately explored it. I’d never known what a man’s hand tasted like.

  “She came.” Jimmy leaned closer to me and I closed my eyes. “She left at my request and promised not to return.” He kissed me when I opened my mouth to ask him why she’d done that. But I forgot my questions under his sweet seduction.

  Some say there are a thousand ways to kiss, and I swear that Jimmy knew all of them. Knew and taught me some of them that night. The best were deep kisses that traveled through me like a drug, until my entire body was on fire for him. I twisted restlessly under him, fondling his head and neck and shoulders. Caressing anything and everything I could reach, anxious to touch as much of him as I could, while he showed me what it felt like to be an attractive woman.

  He rid me of my clothes at some point. I’ve no idea when because it didn’t matter to me. I did understand that if I asked him to do anything, whether in words or deeds, he would do it until I was most pleased. He made me tell him what I wanted and rewarded me for every request.

  Jimmy attended to the obvious parts of me, especially my breasts and between my legs. But he also enjoyed other places, like my navel, which seemed to have a direct link to my core. When he rolled me on my stomach, I writhed and sobbed and pounded my fists while he learned every sensitive spot on my back. And when he buried his face to drink my dew while his finger dipped into my backside, I screamed so loudly that I didn’t hear the thunder after lightning brightened the room.

  I recovered myself slowly and watched the lightning. It was worse than it had been before midnight and I was silent for a few minutes. Scamp and the other dogs were barking, in warning but not alarm. Linda and Clare were playing next door, producing long sighs that echoed through the house. I knew they weren’t too serious since Clare wasn’t laughing continuously. But I missed Jimmy’s warmth, even with the sheet drawn up to my neck, and turned to find him.

  He was standing at the door, frowning as he listened. I stood up and grabbed my robe before joining him. I could hear Miss Jessie arguing with a man. I pressed closer and knew whom she was talking to.

  Mayor Jones was back. I heard the back screen door slam as another lightning bolt shot through the sky. I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes, sending up a prayer.r />
  “Anne, dear.”

  I looked up at Jimmy. His face was set and hard. If he hadn’t just taught me how tender a man could be with a woman, I would have run from the look on his face.

  He kissed my forehead in reassurance and I relaxed.

  “Wait here while I deal with him. Don’t leave the room, no matter what happens.”

  “But,” I began, trying to say that he should leave before Bixby found him. Jimmy chuckled softly at the look on my face.

  “He can’t hurt me, dear. Promise me that you won’t leave the room.”

  I hesitated for a moment, then yielded and agreed.

  Jimmy left the room without another word. I pressed my ear against the door, trying to hear what was going on. I heard Miss Jessie yell, a harsh sound that stopped abruptly.

  I couldn’t bear not knowing what was happening. So I opened the door and looked out, being careful to keep my body inside the room.

  Mayor Jones was charging through the kitchen door, with Bixby at his shoulder. His face was near purple with anger but he was silent, a sure sign of terrible fury. I couldn’t see Miss Jessie and I feared for her life.

  Jimmy stood in front of my door, with a knife in each hand. The single lightbulb in the ceiling turned their polished steel into cold flames. Then the knives took flight.

  Mayor Jones stopped cold, a knife in the doorframe on either side of his head. His eyes darted from one side to the other. He glared at Jimmy and a big Colt revolver appeared in his hand.

  Jimmy laughed. My blood ran cold at the sound. He lifted his hands and flexed his fingers like a pianist. The knives quivered in the wood and then took flight again. He laughed yet again when the knives blossomed in his hands, glowing like hellfire.

  Another lightning bolt struck very close to us. Its thunder followed immediately and shook the house. I could smell the burning ozone through the open windows. Lightning cracked again and again. Linda and Clare were chuckling, their cries punctuated by more lightning.

  “Damn you, you fancy lawyer!” Mayor Jones hissed. “Bixby, get him.”

  Bixby stopped. Another lightning bolt showed his wide eyes as he stared over Mayor Jones’s shoulder at Jimmy. Jimmy smiled at him, turning the knives in his fingers.

  “Yes, please do, Bixby. It would give me the greatest pleasure to send you straight to hell.”

  “Damn you, Bixby, don’t listen to him. He’s just a pretty boy. You’ve killed bigger men than him before. Get him!” the mayor shouted and stepped aside so Bixby could pass.

  Bixby took a step forward. Jimmy balanced a knife, making a show of preparing to throw it. Bixby hesitated, watching Jimmy as if he’d never seen his like before. He took another step, hesitantly this time. Thunder rolled outside like a battalion on the march. Then a knife bloomed in Bixby’s hat and pinned it to the wall.

  Bixby opened his mouth in a scream but made no sound as he stared at Jimmy. Jimmy snapped his fingers and the knife left the hat to return to him.

  Bixby backed up slowly and bumped against Mayor Jones. He looked at the mayor as if they were strangers and then shoved him aside.

  “Bixby, where are you going? You can kill him.”

  “No, no I can’t. Not tonight, not ever.” Another step took Bixby back inside the kitchen.

  “Bixby.”

  Bixby froze under the lash of Jimmy’s voice. “Yes, sir?” he quavered.

  “The next night you sleep in Texas or Oklahoma will be your last. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll remember that, sir. I’m leaving now, sir, for good. Sir.”

  “Bixby!” the mayor shouted and was answered by the screen door’s slam. A car started and left within a minute.

  “Jones.”

  Mayor Jones turned around slowly and looked at Jimmy. He displayed more courage than I would have. Or was it stupidity?

  “You’re going to resign as mayor and you’re never coming back to this house. Do you understand?”

  “Like hell I’ll do that, boy. You may have some pretty knife tricks but they’re no match for a good Colt.” Mayor Jones shook himself slightly and pointed the revolver at Jimmy.

  “You blind fool.” The knives slid back up Jimmy’s sleeves.

  A trio of lightning bolts burst overhead, so close together as to be almost one. The ceiling lights hissed and sparked then winked out, as if acknowledging a greater power. Mayor Jones cursed. I glimpsed a white blur flying down the hall.

  Another burst of green-tinted light showed a hawk beating at the mayor’s face with its wings and talons. The mayor screamed and tried to fight it. He dropped the gun, which went off. He howled then and ran for the kitchen door, limping badly. The hawk chased him, still attacking.

  I ran to the window and looked out over the yard. The mayor soon bolted out the back door and paused, desperately looking for an escape. Miss Jessie’s car was locked up in the garage as always and the yard was empty of clients’ cars. The hawk swooped down on him and the mayor cursed.

  Scamp barked, the clear command of a general summoning his troops. He had always hated the mayor and was kept locked up when the mayor called. Suddenly all the dogs were there, barking and growling as they snapped at the mayor’s legs.

  Lightning flashed again and again as Jones ran for the trees that stood between the yard and the highway. He clambered up with surprising agility for a man of his age and weight, hindered further by a bleeding leg. But all the commotion and his clumsiness disturbed the roosting chickens. They too descended on him, sending him farther up into the tree until he was so well wedged in between branches that they couldn’t reach him.

  Thunder rolled. The skies opened and poured down rain. I hastily ducked back inside my room but kept trying to see where Jimmy was. Every other boarder had poked her head outside and was staring at the mayor.

  “Best get back inside, young lady,” Miss Jessie said from just outside my window. She had a towel pressed to her head but looked otherwise none the worse for wear.

  “But—” I started to protest.

  “Your caller will be returning to you in a moment. You’d best be prepared to thank him for all he’s done on your behalf.”

  “Oh yes, ma’am!” I started to shut the window.

  “Anne, remember my rules. Callers can stay with a young lady only until eleven in the morning.”

  “Thank you, ma’am!” Jimmy had become a caller, not a client. Now I had hours to spend learning from him.

  I leaned farther out the window, trying to find Jimmy so I could tell him. Slams marked windows being shut as the boarders settled themselves again, like horses entering the stable at night. The hens clucked in a rather irritated fashion as they rediscovered comfortable places to sleep. Scamp and his cohorts barked at the incensed mayor, flinging themselves up the tree in a victory celebration.

  Suddenly, a man’s hands slipped around me and cupped my breasts inside my robe. My nipples quickly welcomed the familiar touch, hardening as they surged forward eagerly. He rubbed his hips against me. I could feel his hard ridge rub my robe’s silk up and down the crack in my backside.

  I swear my body melted at the touch. I wriggled against Jimmy and tried to turn. He squeezed me fiercely and I yelped. I stood stock-still and felt my body liquefy in yearning.

  “Did you obey me, sweet Anne?” His voice was low and rough, a hunter’s growl in my ear.

  “Y-yes,” I stammered. Even my mind was yielding to his body. I still remember the scent of his fine cologne as my hips quivered helplessly against him.

  “Then lift your robe and bend over.”

  I groaned at his command. My hands fumbled as I obeyed him. I didn’t want to wait even the few seconds that it took to bare myself for him. Then I braced myself on the window ledge, as eager and willing as any mare in heat, totally heedless of the rain pounding my hair.

  He came into me on a hard surge that slammed me forward. My hips were trapped between his legs and the windowsill. My shoulders went down but my head came up as I a
rched. I moaned as my insides adapted to him, welcoming his cock into my wet, needy depths. I had never felt so much before. I hadn’t known just how good it could be to have a man fill you, showing what a woman’s flesh and blood was made for.

  Jimmy moved slowly at first until I learned how to move with him. His hand found my bud and played it, until I moaned louder than Linda and Clare put together. Water pulsed over my head and shoulders as I rocked in and out of the window under him. Then he thrust harder and faster, altering his angle until he was pounding a single spot deep inside. I came with a rush the first time he hit that point. But he did it again and again until every inch of me burst into fireworks.

  When I could think again, I was lying on the bed, my robe hung over the chair, looking as limp as I felt. My hair was wrapped in a towel and my shoulders were only slightly damp. The window was closed, a slight barrier against the world beyond. Jimmy was taking his clothes off, contemplating me.

  I reached up and took off the towel, the only thing that hid me from him. I stretched for him and displayed myself shamelessly. I wanted more of his magnificent body. I wanted to learn and experience and enjoy my womanhood. His eyes glowed when I ran a finger between my legs. I liked that reaction so I did it again, letting him see just how good he made me feel.

  “Show me more.”

  I blinked, uncertain what he was talking about. He could see every inch. Then I realized that he wanted to see my emotions, my pleasure, my willingness.

  So I touched myself again as I had never done before. I circled and played as my fingers learned how to awaken the excitement that he had taught me.

  I watched Jimmy closely while I did so, my eyes caressing the strong masculine form that the fine tailoring had hidden. He had wonderful sweeps of muscle across his chest and a flat stomach that looked fit to lift a horse. I sighed when I saw his legs, with their long corded muscles flowing down to catch his knees then swelling briefly to hold his calves’ speed and determination. Finally ending at neat, square ankles so unlike a woman’s in their ability to carry his strength forward. His broad shoulders were perfectly suited to his height and carried his strong neck and head well. As for his cock, well, I had seen many before but his was especially handsome, since I knew so well what a wonderful lover he was.