Divine Phoenix (28 page)

* * * *

At the Divine Creek Ranch that evening, Clay looked on, trying to hide his amusement as all the men shuffled their feet and cast pained glances at Lily.

Moments earlier, she’d put the big question to them all. Looking sweet and innocent, with her big amber eyes, Clay knew there was no way the men would refuse her. The only ones who looked on with pleasure were Kendall, Boone, and Richard Warner because they’d already given their blessing to Maya posing for her.

“Have you considered using professional models?” Evan Garner asked with a discontented tone.

“Uh!
Excuse
me,” Rosemary Garner piped up, standing beside him with her little hand resting on her cocked hip. “That’s not the issue, and you know it. We want—
I
want to model for her.” Grasping his hand and his brother Wes’s, she looked over at all the others, who were congregated around the packed-up SUVs. “Pardon us for just a minute, y’all.”

She tugged them a short distance away. Evan had his back to the amused crowd as Rosemary spoke to him, but Clay chuckled as Rosemary tilted her head and spoke sweetly, almost beseechingly to Evan in a quiet tone, and it was obvious when the man capitulated because Evan put one hand on her upper arm and the other tilted her chin up as he spoke quietly. Her smile was big and happy, and she threw her arms around him and then spoke excitedly to Wes as she hugged him, too.

“Well, shit,” Ash Peterson, the foreman of the Divine Creek Ranch, muttered. “If anyone was going to resist this little venture, it was Evan. What do you want to do, Juliana?”

Ash’s wife, Juliana, broke out in amused laughter while holding their baby boy and pointed at her chest. “Are you kidding me? After the havoc your son wreaked on my body?” She dissolved into hilarious giggles.

Her husband, the stereotypical cowboy replied, “Hey, now, woman, you’ve still got it goin’ on. You can pose if you want to.” Baby Will laughed along with his mom and clapped his hands as Juliana reached for Ash and hugged him.

“You’re good for a girl’s ego, Ash Peterson.”

Will reached for his dad, and Ash took him more than willingly and blew a raspberry on his chubby little neck. The Petersons were the picture of a happy family.

“I promise no faces will be showing, if that helps,” Lily offered with hopeful eyes.

Lydia Carlisle, newly wed to Chance and Clayton Carlisle, danced a little jig when her men offered up the same concessions as the others.

Eli and Rachel Wolf were staying home from this hog hunt because Rachel was feeling under the weather. With a six-week-old infant in the house, Clay imagined they were exhausted as well. But they were planning on coming to the pig roast the following Saturday night.

Speaking to Lily, Angel Ramirez, horse breeding specialist and former foreman of the Divine Creek Ranch said, “If Teresa would like to it’s all right with us, just nothing too…suggestive.”

Lily nodded happily. “I understand completely, sir.”

“Please, call me Angel, Lily.”

“Okay—Angel.” She nodded at him and his brother Joaquin, who was part of their threesome. Teresa whispered something to Lily, and Lily giggled and nodded.

Duke Rivers and Gage Randall were having a discussion with their fiancée, Emma Guthrie. She shook her head and gestured to her sternum. “I think the scar would be too distracting. I’m okay with modeling an ankle bracelet or something.”

Duke nodded. “Okay, just so you know, the choice is yours, if you want to try.” Emma looked at them both and smiled, love glowing in her eyes.

Ace Webster and Kemp Whittier gazed down at their fiancée, Summer Heston, who was the owner of a one-of-a-kind ladies’ adults only boutique in Morehead. Ace and Kemp had consulted with the lovely shop owner concerning her security issues earlier in the summer and had wound up falling in love with her and proposing.

When they nodded, Summer squealed happily and squeezed their hands to her bosom in excitement. Both men chuckled, and when she realized what she was doing, she dropped their hands and giggled as she hugged them both, one at a time.

The only woman left in the group, besides Grace, who had already given her consent, was Summer’s sister, Margot. Her boyfriend, Jake Redman, stood beside her whispering in a serious tone as he glowered at her. Gil James, who had become good friends with Jake and was foreman at the Rockin’ C Ranch, spoke softly as though he was trying to mediate between them.

An irate frown crossed Margot’s face, and she growled several succinct words at Jake and then capped them off by sticking her hand up and giving him the bird. Clay was pretty good at reading lips and was fairly certain when her mouth moved that she’d said, “Go fuck yourself.”

Clay coughed to hide his laughter when a feral gleam entered Jake’s eyes and he whispered a hasty retort. Margot gasped and stomped away from him, her jaw stuck out at a stubborn angle. It surprised Clay when Jake grinned with enjoyment as he
and
Gil watched her flounce away to stand with Summer. Gil crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head as he murmured something to Jake, who shrugged and kept his eyes on Margot.

When it appeared as though Lily had all the men’s approval in one fashion or another, she thanked them and then turned happily to Clay and Del, who had stood mutely beside him. Clay sympathized with Del. The three of them had been cockblocked by a commitment to hunt overly reproductive swine.

Hugging her one more time, hating to let her go, Clay asked, “Do you have everything you need, Lily? My keys to the truck and the shop?” Lily jingled the keys in her hand. She still had to work the following day, so they were leaving Clay’s truck for her to use.

Jack approached them. “Lily, my cousin Maynard is going to be around the ranch this weekend, and Eli is just down the road. If you feel the least bit uncomfortable while you’re on the road or at the shop, they both said you could call on them. These are their cell phone numbers.” He handed her a slip of paper then turned to Clay. “You should talk to Ace and Kemp about this situation.”

Unfamiliar with the help Ace and Kemp had given to several people in the assembled group over the last couple of years, Del cleared his throat and said, “With all due respect, Jack, we can handle Mr. King.”

Jack looked Del in the eye and nodded his head. “I’ll leave you to your good-byes then.”

Lily looked from Clay to his brother. “I’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry about me. I hope you have a great time.”

Del pulled Lily close and stroked her cheek as she pressed her body against his. “Stay safe and get your rest because when we get home you’re not going to get much sleep Sunday night.”

“Oh,” was all she got out before Del planted a deep kiss on her lips.

Glancing around, Clay noticed the other couples and groups in similar interchanges. He closed in behind Lily and turned her lips to his when Del was done kissing her.

“I’ll miss your sweet kisses,” he murmured before smooching her soft lips again.

Lily’s sexy smile sent hot streaks of lust straight to his cock, and he imagined her pliant, full lips sucking his shaft.

“Sweet talker.”

Del murmured, “We’re going to call you when we head to bed tonight. Keep your phone with you.” The arousal in her eyes at Del’s authoritative tone fed the lust growing inside Clay.

“I’ll be waiting for your call,” she whispered as conversations resumed all around them.

Ethan Grant clapped Clay on the back. “All right, lovebirds, the sooner we leave the sooner we can get back.”

Lily smiled up at Clay and kissed him one last time, but he could still see the longing in her eyes.
Cockblockers
.

Lily sifted through her overnight bag, looking for her swimsuit. Grace had told her that their pool was heated and she should bring her swimsuit. She’d been reluctant but thought it might be a great way to get to know the girls and perhaps talk about modeling the jewelry.

She cringed when she saw how loosely the swimsuit now fit her. In some ways the weight loss had been good. Her curves were still intact for the most part, though smaller, but she felt a little bony in places. She was grateful Clay had stopped her when he had because she hadn’t been able to see what was happening. Her body image was warped from too many years of false input, and as determined as she had been to change everything about herself she might have put herself in the hospital again.

Maya Warner slipped into the bedroom they were sharing and said, “Clay and his brother sure did seem unwilling to leave you earlier.”

Lily nodded. “I was just as reluctant if you want to know the truth. We only just…got together and I…”

Maya chuckled. “Can’t keep your hands off of them? I know exactly how you feel. I was like that, too, still am, actually. My guys got a good impression of you for asking them up front about me modeling. They like that you weren’t sneaky about it and just came right out and asked.”

“Honesty is the best policy.”

Maya smiled, and gazed at her. “Lydia Carlisle is cooking for us again tomorrow night. I’m going to make sure you eat well.”

“Huh?”

“Honesty is the best policy. You’ve lost too much weight. Lydia is the chef in our group. I’m a decent cook and so is Teresa.”

“Oh, I know! Supper was delicious!”

“We’re going to fatten you up a little. Don’t make that face. Come on. Grace said the water is warm and she’s got the lights adjusted outside for us.”

Lily wondered at that last statement until she followed Maya out the back door. All the lighting around the backyard had been dimmed, and so had the lights inside the pool. A moment later she understood why. There were several wet swimsuits lying poolside, and Rosemary, Grace, Summer, Margot, Lydia, and LuAnn, who had arrived during supper, were all skinny-dipping. Juliana was in the process of taking hers off as she giggled at something Grace said from in the pool. Emma had gotten a page while they were eating and had to return to the hospital since it was her weekend on call.

Grace must’ve caught a look of trepidation on Lily’s face because she waved and said, “Lily, you don’t have to skinny-dip if you don’t want to.”

Maya divested herself of her suit and dove in a smooth arc into the water stark naked as well.

Grace continued, “It’s just us girls. We have total privacy with the fence and all the shrubs but you do whatever feels most comfortable to you.”

Teresa patted the spot beside her where she sat dangling her legs in the water. “It’s fine either way, Lily. Come sit.”

“Thank you, Teresa,” she murmured as she lowered beside the brunette beauty who was still wearing her swimsuit. No way in hell was she revealing the tattoo hidden under her one-piece.

“I have stretch marks that are not ready for the light of day, or night. Joaquin tells me that I’m like a tiger who has earned her stripes.” Teresa did not say it as if she were denigrating herself. She seemed as though she was proud of her husband’s words.

“That’s really sweet of him.”

Teresa smiled, a faraway look in her eyes. “He’s a charmer. Both him and Angel are.” Quietly, she added, “If you have a bracelet or necklace you would like modeled, I’d be happy to do that, but I think it would be best if I not model the other pieces. They’d never say it, but I think Angel and Joaquin would prefer that I not reveal my body like that. And then of course there are these, she said, indicating her abdomen and her stretch marks.

“I have a beautiful connecting ring and bracelet combination with a matching anklet and toe ring that would look beautiful with your olive skin. Of course, any pieces you model for me, you get to keep.”

Teresa smiled enthusiastically, and before long Lily had the interest of all the women as they gathered around her. The girls teased Rosemary when she offered to model the clit clip, nipple clamp, and belly chain combination, which Lily hadn’t planned to take a picture of, except using a Plexiglas mannequin made for such pieces. The effect wasn’t as good, but there were some lines she couldn’t cross, even on a personal jewelry website.

Teresa laughed and said, “Lily, you should let Rosemary run that one by Evan
right before
she models it for you so you can get the full effect with his handprints on her derriere from the spanking.”

Lily giggled with all the others but unfortunately, memories of JT reared their ugly head, dampening her mood considerably.

Teresa patted her forearm. “I’m sorry, Lily. I shouldn’t have said that. I apologize.”

Lily waved a hand dismissively. “I understand the difference between erotic spanking and…what happened to me.”

Margot, the ballsy one on the bunch, asked, “What happened, Lily?”

Summer turned to her sister and said, “Lily was married to an abusive dickhead.”

Lily wished she’d schooled her reaction because the conversation turned to the men of their pasts who had done them wrong. She didn’t mean to be a downer. They talked about what they’d like to do to some of them, and before long they were joking about it and carrying on. Lily felt very much accepted and a part of the group.

Maya smiled from the water and said, “Lily? You sure you don’t want to join us…au naturel? It’s just us girls. The female bonding version of what the guys are probably doing.”

“What’s the female version of farting, belching, talking smack, and jacking off because they miss us?” Margot asked.

The girls all broke out into raucous laughter, and Summer replied, “Skinny-dipping!”

Lily was actually tempted, and Grace and Maya must’ve caught on, because Grace said, “It’s really okay. I dimmed the lights for this very reason. We’re not all raving nudists here. At least not this bunch. Now when my friends come visit from Bliss, Colorado? Boy, anything goes with those gals! It becomes like the Playboy mansion around here!”

Lydia Carlisle giggled. “So what you’re saying is this is a sedate gathering of mild-mannered women?”

Grace snickered. “Oh, hell, no. I just keep the lights down so the stretch marks aren’t as visible. Come on. I can see that you want to. You’re practically half out of it in your mind already. What’s stopping you?”

Lily grimaced but wanted to trust Grace and her friends. “I…my ex-husband…No. I have a horrible tattoo. I’m planning to have it removed. It was my ex-husband’s design. He tricked me—”

“The bastard!” LuAnn growled.

Lily fiddled with her shoulder strap nervously. “I didn’t know until it was too late. I was young and I worshipped him.”

Summer said, “Say no more, babe. Off with the suit. Later we can make a voodoo doll of him and burn it. I say embrace your beauty, even the parts you plan to change. You know we’re not going to judge you, right?”

Lily looked around at their affirming expressions, and Grace nodded, silently encouraging her.

Lily suddenly found herself standing next to Teresa, and she slipped the straps from her shoulders. She glanced around as the girls backed away to give her room, and she allowed the suit to slip down her legs. She fought the urge to cover the mark with her hand before she jumped into the pool, which was nearly as warm as bathwater and very relaxing.

The girls came near, and Maya asked, “Can we see?” She didn’t mean in an ugly, nosy way. Her tone was more like she was asking to see her battle scars.

Lily propped her elbows behind her on the pool’s edge and pulled herself up. She’d never been overly modest before, so their scrutiny of her body didn’t bother her, merely the thought they were seeing the hideous tattoo.

Grace vehemently ground out, “That sadistic, cocksucking, mother
fucking
bastard!”

All the other girls’ eyes popped open and jaws dropped at her growling, angry tone of voice. Grace evidently didn’t crap rainbows
all
the time.

Rosemary chuckled and quipped, “Tell us how ya
really
feel, Grace.”

“I take it Clay and Del have seen this mark?” Summer asked. “They should contact Ace and Kemp to investigate that bastard.”

Lily replied, “Jack mentioned that to them. Del told me all he wants is thirty minutes alone with JT. He worked for a private military company overseas so I can imagine what he’d actually do if he ever got that time alone with JT.”

Grace scoffed. “Private military? There’s no telling. Your ex-husband doesn’t deserve to be breathing if this is the kind of thing he would do to somebody who trusted him. Good for absolutely nothing.”

LuAnn piped up. “Oh, no. He’s definitely good for
something
. All we’d need is chloroform, a chainsaw, and a wood chipper. He’d make excellent fertilizer, given time.”

Everyone laughed, including Lily. LuAnn described the perfect private location outside of the town she was from, Fort Stockton, Texas, where his remains could be put to use helping the sagebrush grow.

Rosemary asked, “Would you ever stand up to him if you had the chance?”

Shaking her head, Lily recalled the unholy gleam in his eyes the first time she got a look at the tattoo.

Maya patted her shoulder. “Sometimes it’s best to keep yourself safe. I know that for a fact. Some people are just crazy and no purpose is served by having contact at all.”

Grace said, “Lily, Maya was attacked last summer and shot by her deceased husband’s partner. He nearly killed her. We’re just glad you’re here with us, safe. We’re going to do our best to keep it that way.”

“What’s that noise?” Margot asked, treading water beside Lily.

“What noise?” LuAnn replied, pulling herself up onto the edge of the pool to sit with her feet dangling in the water.

Lily marveled at the pretty blonde as she sat there stark naked, leaning back on her hands as though she were sitting there fully clothed. Lily wished that she were that cool. She planned to grab one of the towels from the stack on a table near the pool’s edge just as soon as she left the water.

Rosemary whispered, “
Shh
. I hear it, too.”

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

“What in the world is that?” Grace moved to the edge of the pool closest to the back gate and called out, “Is somebody there?”

The back gate on the privacy fence swung open, and the source of the curious, flatulent sound suddenly appeared. Like gophers hiding from a hawk, the girls all ducked down in the water, with the exception of Teresa, who was clad in her suit, and LuAnn, who sat frozen, wide-eyed in horror.

Lily did a double take when she realized the person was dressed in clown garb. Clad in ratty, cutoff overalls, yellow tights, red thermal shirt, rainbow-striped leg warmers, a fuzzy orange wig, a beat-to-hell cowboy hat, and high-topped sneakers, with full makeup on, stood a decked-out rodeo clown.

“Oh, hey, Grace! I thought I heard noise—Oh,
shit
!”

“Aaaaaahhhhh!” The sound that erupted from LuAnn’s wide open mouth was enough to curdle the milk of all the cows in the nearby vicinity.

Grace reached the edge of the pool closest to him and said, “Maynard, I’m having a get-together with some—”

“Aaaaaahhhhh!”

The rodeo clown slapped his hand over his made-up face to cover his eyes. “Shit, Grace, I’m so—
No
! Don’t get out of the water!”

LuAnn struggled to her feet and sprinted for the house, the Doppler effect of the shrieking sound traveling with her. “Aaaaaahhhhh!”

“Holy shit, I’m so sorry!” He slapped both hands over his ears, and Lily cringed as the pitch of LuAnn’s piercing scream rose even higher as she ran for the house. The rodeo clown’s face went blank as he watched LuAnn, which gave the gaping mouth and wide eyes of his clown makeup an even more humorous, yet vacant look.

“Maynard!” Grace gasped out a second before Margot shot poor Maynard full in the face with the water blaster that had been floating in the pool. He jumped like he’d been Tased and slapped his hands back over his eyes.

On dripping feet, LuAnn ran up the stairs, took one step on the porch, and her feet shot out from under her. She landed square on her ass, cutting off her scream, before hitting her head on the concrete, which evidently dazed her.

At the abrupt change, Maynard peeked and one second later was running at full speed across the backyard. Teresa followed, and all the women took the opportunity to climb en masse from the pool and hurriedly grab the beach towels Grace had put out for them.

Lily took a towel for LuAnn and ran for the porch. Her aching leg muscles protested the exertion.

“Careful on the concrete! Don’t slip!” Grace called out.

Lily climbed the steps carefully and quickly covered LuAnn’s nudity while Maynard examined her head.

“She’s got a good lump forming. Grace, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t see. I didn’t realize when I came through the gate what y’all were doing at first. Jack is gonna
kill
me!”

Grace crouched down beside them. “Nonsense. Did you just get back from the rodeo?”