"My father would kill you if he found us," Mary Lee Howell gasped, eyes glazed with sex as she looked up from her work.
Cade just sighed with contentment as her lips lowered once again to make a seal around the head of his cock. Her blue eyes stared up at him, burning lustfully as she took him to the hilt, her head bobbing up and down with a slow, maddening rhythm.
Knowing that with just a gesture he could turn those eyes blank and empty, her mind thoughtless and totally obedient, made Cade struggle to control himself. He growled in the back of his throat, lean muscles tensing throughout his body. He tangled his fingers in her long blonde hair and began to guide her up and down.
Mary Lee relaxed her throat and let him control her rhythm, moaning blissfully as his manhood filled her mouth.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Mary Lee?" It was a man's voice, the voice of a man used to getting his way and not used to waiting.
Cade froze, his jaw locking in a scowl. He knew the owner of that voice.
Mary Lee's mouth slipped off of Cade's member with a soft
pop
and she grinned salaciously up at him. Fingers wrapping around him she began to pump up and down.
"What is it, Daddy?" the 18-year-old called innocently, staring up into Cade's eyes and biting her lip.
His scowl softened as his eyes rolled back and he sucked in a breath, trying to control himself.
There was a moment of silence outside the door. Then, the voice again. "I want to see you in my study," and the sound of feet stomping upstairs to the third floor.
Mary Lee's hand pumped faster and faster, her head leaning forward so Cade could feel her hot breath on his sensitive skin. Her blue eyes sparkled as she teased him, her mouth opening and making the perfect O-shape, just begging him to slip his length between her lips and fuck her face.
Gritting his teeth to master himself, Cade reached into his pocket and slipped something into his hand. It was a gold coin, old as civilization, with strange symbols engraved on either side. He pondered it for a brief moment, Mary Lee continuing her task.
She glanced at his hand as her full lips lowered towards his manhood once again. "What's tha-" she started to ask when he turned it and flashed it before her eyes.
Her sparkling baby blues went instantly wide and blank, her hand dropping from his cock as she settled back onto her knees with her hands in her lap. Servile, submissive and obedient, she stared up at him vacantly.
"God," Cade muttered to himself, his way of cursing the fact that he had to leave. Women all responded to his token differently, and it never failed to make him hard as a rock. He spared a regretful glance for his iron-hard member. "I'll be back," he promised, slipping his trousers on as swiftly as he could with his sizable length still standing at attention.
Mary Lee stared ahead, her mind empty and open. He threw his dirt-stained white shirt over his head, grabbed his revolver from the bed and tucked it into the back of his belt. Then, closing the door softly behind him, he bounded upstairs, hardly a sound made by the passage of his bare feet.
* * *
Some time before...
The man who pushed open the swinging doors to the saloon was as dusty as the road he'd ridden into town. His hat was broad-brimmed, and with the sunlight streaming through the doorway behind him the only feature the patrons of the bar could make out was the rough stubble on his chin.
He walked like a man who had been riding for some time, a rolling gait that indicated many hard miles.
"Howdy, stranger," said Tam the barkeep, squinting a little nervously at the newcomer. Newcomers always made Tam nervous. "Something to wet your whistle?"
Beneath the shadow of the brim of his hat, the man smiled as he crossed the floor and sat down on a tall barstool. "Whiskey." His voice was soft but rough, dry from the heat and dust of the plains surrounding the small town of Goldgorge.
"What's your name, stranger?" Tam asked, setting a shot glass on the bar and slopping a generous helping of cheap whiskey into it. He asked carefully, noting that in spite of his grimy appearance the newcomer's gun and bandolier of cartridges were gleaming as if they were well cared for.
The man laughed softly. "The wrong name can get you killed out here, Tam."
Tam flinched slightly at the stranger's use of his name.
"But," the man paused and flicked his hat to the back of his head, "you can call me Cade."
Tam examined the stranger's face, and the rest of the bar pretended not to do the same. It was a tanned, rugged face — but so was everyones' around here. The man who wore it seemed neither young nor old, but somewhere in between, and his eyes were dark but laughing. It was a handsome face, if you were into the dark, rough and charming type, but there was a little bit of hardness at the corner of the man's mouth that Tam, whose cowardliness had made him an excellent judge of character, immediately recognized as the mark of a man not to be trifled with.
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Cade," Tam said, touching his forehead as though doffing an invisible cap.
Cade inclined his head. The shot of whiskey was raised carefully and tossed back with an air of experience, then placed just as carefully back down. "Another," Cade gestured with a few fingers for a refill, grimacing as the heat of the liquor ran down the back of his dry throat.
As Tam reached for the glass, Cade's hand shot out like a striking rattlesnake and gripped the barkeep by the wrist. Tam froze, his heart skipping a beat, then Cade slowly, almost carefully, pulled him closer.
"And while you're at it," the stranger muttered. "I'm looking for some information..."
Tam gulped audibly. There was no sound in the bar as several other patrons visibly leaned away. Under ordinary circumstances, one of Tam's regulars might have come to his aid. But somehow they all sensed that this newcomer was not to be interrupted.
"What kind of information?" Tam whispered, his throat constricting and his mouth suddenly very, very dry.
"I'm looking for someone," Cade murmured. "You'll have heard his name..."
* * *
Ramses Howell. An ostentatious name for a brash and vulgar man. Far in the past, Tyler Cade had felt flashes of guilt before he took down a mark, but he knew that even back then he would have gunned this man down without compunction. Howell was a robber baron, the owner of most of the mines that had given Goldgorge its name, and he was well-known to work his miners to the bone, feed them little and pay them less, all in order to turn a richer profit for himself.
Cade didn't know why his employer had sent him after Howell in particular, but he didn't need to know. That sort of business was above his pay-grade. His only job was simple: locate and eliminate.
Cade set the coin on its edge and sent it spinning with a flick of his finger. It was unfortunate, he thought, that he had needed to intimidate Tam like that. The man was fragile enough as it was. But Howell was a frightening figure, and if Cade knew anything it was that the only way to get information out of someone about a frightening man was to be even more frightening yourself.
Cade sat at the back of the saloon at a round table for five or six. He sat by himself, waiting for the person he had paid Tam to send for. Now that he knew where to find Howell, he could take his time getting there. It had been a long, lonely road to Goldgorge, and Cade needed companionship.
He saw the woman come downstairs and walk over to the bar, raven black hair and black high-heeled shoes. Her legs were long and smooth in dark stockings and even from his angle he could see the curve of her generous breasts. Cade wondered what such a beauty was doing in a place like this, but then discarded the thought. It didn't matter, in the end.
Tam, still looking a little worried, pointed furtively towards Cade's table, and the woman turned and strode confidently across the now almost-deserted saloon. By the time she arrived, Cade already knew he liked her. She sashayed through the room with easy grace, hips swinging saucily, and sat casually across from him.
The woman crossed her knees and leaned across the table, offering her hand. "Roxie," she said, her gaze frank as she stared into his dark eyes with hers. "Tam says you're a weary man in search of company."
Cade looked her up and down, taking his time. He already knew what he was going to do with the woman, but he enjoyed the foreplay. "You'll do," he murmured, a smile playing about his lips.
She gave him a mock gasp of annoyance, slapping playfully at his arm. Then, a smile curved across her mouth. "I like you," she said conspiratorially. "Let's get out of here."
Roxie stood, giving Cade an excellent view of her cleavage as she did. "Follow me," she ordered, and led the way upstairs. The bounty hunter's eyes watched her tight ass as he followed her down the gallery and by the time they had arrived at the door to her room, Cade was already rock hard with anticipation.
He followed her through the doorway, and as he closed the door she was suddenly very close, her mouth upturned and her hand on his chest. "I know you already gave Tam my money," she murmured, breath hot on his neck and one hand trailing down his chest to begin unbuckling his belt. "Which means we can get right to the fun part."
"Wait." Cade's voice was quiet and playful, but commanding. He sidestepped her to extricate himself and slowly crossed to the bed. Without looking at her, he began to undress, dropping his hat on the rough bedside table and lifting his bandolier over his head and dropping it to the floor with a clatter. His shirt followed, the travel-stained piece of cloth that had once been white and was now stained with dirt and sweat. It hit the floor, then his fingers were in his pockets, slowly discarding a few bills and coins before tightening around something else.
Cade sensed Roxie behind him, then her hands were caressing his hips and her hard nipples were pressed against his back. Her fingers reach around to trace the bulge in his trousers. "Ready yet, cowboy?" she murmured against his neck.
