Saving Grace Read online

  "You got some nerve, tryin' to work me over like that," Travis growled. Rebecca gasped at the same time the distant sound of thunder rolled over the plains and towards the barn. It wasn't a moment before Travis had his leg up on a stool, Rebecca over his knee with her rear facing up and his hand pulling at the hem of her skirt until he pulled it up over the generous curve of her bottom. "I've a good mind to tell yer Pa about this right now so he can come down here and do this himself," Travis rumbled as he pulled down Becca's bloomers, exposing her bare ass. "But dammit it Rebecca Rivers I'm in love with you and there's nothin' can be done about that. I'll take you as my wife some day, mark my words, and I need you to understand your place."

  I stood, completely transfixed at the scene unfolding before me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I couldn't believe the way this ranch hand was treating my friend, the way he was handling her like she were just another animal that he owned. But it was more than that. There was a tenderness in his touch, a certain way he had with her that showed exactly how much he cared for her. Something I couldn't describe if my life depended on it. It was something you had to see.

  The first smacks of his weathered hand on her tender flesh resounded through the barn, causing some of the horses to whinny and stomp in their stalls. I watched as Travis thundered away at my friend's behind, her pale flesh blossoming into a fresh pink, then into a tender red. But watching her like that, I swear there wasn't a single shade of gray that clouded her expression. Her face, though pained, spoke only to the deep pleasure she was experiencing. I found myself breathing heavily, the wet spot that had started at the sight of the pair, flushing through the cotton of my own underwear as I watched the cowboy discipline my friend.

  Then I noticed him. In the leg of his pants, beside his thigh, I saw the tension of his manhood, pressing against the thick material and flexing with each fresh smack. My modesty got the better of me for a moment and I tore my gaze away. I felt my face flush red with the knowledge that I was watching something, not crude or perverse, but intimate between two lovers, something to which I might not be entitled to bear witness. But my curiosity got the better me and as I looked back up, my eyes caught a glimpse of the slickness that had formed between Becca's cheeks.

  I couldn't help myself as I peered at the pair, Travis stern hand still reprimanding Becca's forwardness. Her rump was red as a tomato now, but the soft flesh at her middle was dripping with what must have been desire. When Travis finally stopped his loving discipline, I watched as his hand moved down the hot skin of her rump and towards her soft center.

  I heard the sound of it, the sound of that wet opening, as his calloused finger pushed her apart and he pushed it inside. She arched her back and let out a moan, her face rounding now into complete pleasure. Travis growled, removed himself from inside her and stood her up, letting her skirt fall back down over her behind. But the look in his eye meant he wasn't done with her yet. Unbuckling himself, he pushed his pants down until they fell to his ankles, stepped forward and in one swift motion picked Rebecca up, then pinned her to the wall.

  My eyes widened, in surprise and I must admit, some delight at what I was about to witness. All sense of propriety seemed to have vanished. The two people in front of me, so caught up in each other, barely realized I was there and I myself felt that if I moved I would just bring undue attention to the fact. So I stood there, staring at the unfurling of their passion, swelling with a strange desire myself.

  It was the first time I'd seen a man's....manhood. The thing looked thick and throbbing and muscular. I suppose I hadn't really expected anything different. I suppose I hadn't really given it much thought up to that point. But the sight of it, tilted towards my friends soft center, sent a hungry kind of shiver through me that I'd not experienced either.

  Rebecca Rivers' face was strained, but not in the way it had been when she was being taught her lesson. Now it wasn't a wince or a cringe, but a certain tautness in her jaw that I saw, with her mouth half open. Her hips bucked at him, as if begging him to be inside of her already. He didn't need much invitation. With their eyes locked, like they were the only two in the world right then and there, like they weren't in a stall with horses and her friend watching, he put himself at the soft lips leading to her inside, flexed, then pushed himself in.

  It was the sound that made my wetness come again. The sound of those moist lips being parted by his stiffness, opening to him willingly. Her legs flailed around his back as he lowered her onto himself, impaling her on his manhood until there was none left to see, until her jaw quivered slightly when she reached the hilt of it.

  The two bodies were a mess of clothes and flesh and when he began moving inside her, that sound, that wet sound, just got wetter. I couldn't help but watch. I wasn't the church going type, but I did feel some embarrassment still, at bearing witness to their intimacy. With each thrust inside of her, I watched her body quake and quiver around his, watched her feet kick as if the wave's of pleasure were rolling through her. Her hands moved up around his neck and she leaned her forehead forward, up against his and closed her eyes.

  His hands stayed on the flesh they'd just flayed into obedience, not groping or kneading it, just holding her firmly there up against the wall. When the moment came, I almost couldn't tell.

  He slowed. She closed her mouth and shut her eyes tight. He moved inside her slowly. I again couldn't help but look at their middle's. I saw those velvet lips at the moment they gripped his manhood, at the moment she inhaled softly at the moment her body shook so gently. Then I saw him start to move. He flexed once, twice, three times, then I lost count because as he came to fill her, his cream began to drip back down his shaft and I stared at it with wide eyes, never having seen such a thing and never having expected to that day.

  That is when I disappeared into their world as well. I could not say how long they stayed like that or how long it was that I was standing there watching because time seemed to stop, with their heads tilted towards each other, each gripped in the others embrace. When the moment did finally fade and we, all three, emerged from out the other side, me suddenly painfully aware of the discomfort I might be causing, I first looked away, then took the few steps towards the stall to my left and began to pet the horse there on its nose, as if none of that had just transpired.

  The rustle of clothes, the straightening of dresses and the buckling of belts, caused me to turn around again, my face a shade less red than it had been. Or so I hoped.

  "Come on," Travis said, walking towards the stall where I was standing. "You can have that one."

  Chapter 2: Doc's Decision

  The ride into town didn't end up being rainy. Not that things blew over. The smell of rain hung in the air and there was a sort of expectancy that rain would come, but nothing did.

  You know what they say about the weather in Colorado, they'd always say, if you don't like it just wait five minutes, it'll change. I can't say I loved the saying, surely that was just as much the case anywhere you went.

  When I reached the Doc's house, there were lantern's already on inside from the darkness in the sky and I hitched the horse up to a post and gave him a pat for being such a good boy and not putting up a fuss with a stranger on his back.

  The Doc's house was no mansion, but it was big enough he had a housekeeper come a few times a week. It was that kind old lady that answered the door and told me to wait while she fetched him. I looked around. Not much had changed in the place since I'd last been there. The memory smacked across my cheek that the last time had been when daddy was still alive and I felt another welling of anguish in my throat which I had to swallow once or twice to choke back down.

  They'd been good friends, daddy and the Doc, and I'd spent many a long day running through the halls of that house while my daddy and him sat sipping lemonade and talking politics. The Doc's wife had died a time ago as well and the two men must have found some comfort in that companionship as he'd never remarried either. Standing there, I could have s
worn I could smell the lemonade they'd been sipping, sometimes laced with just a little whisky to brighten up the day.

  "Well, well," the voice came from down the hall, making me drift back down to earth and smile at the mustached man walking towards me.

  "Doc," I whispered, as I ran up to him and threw myself into his arms. He let out a low chuckle that sent me back again to my childhood and returned my affection with a gentle squeeze. The smell of his jacket, together with all the memories that old house sent barrelling at me finally got the better of me and I felt the burn I'd been burying in my throat erupt in big fat tears that rolled down my cheeks.

  I felt the Doc's demeanour change, rather than saw it, what with my face buried in his shoulder like it was. Inside I cursed myself for being weak and letting on that things might be getting out of hand. The Doc, loyal as he was to daddy, felt just about the same way as the rest of the men around me that I should not be living on my own on that big ranch. In fact, there was probably more pressure on him than there was on me, seeing as how he held the title to the land, as daddy had asked, until such time I should be married.

  I stood like that, with my cheek pressed into his shoulder for a good five minutes, sniffling now and then and feeling kind of bad that I was crying. But if there was a man I could let myself cry in front of, it was the Doc. When the pressure in my neck eased a bit and the tears stopped flowing quite so fast, I pulled away and wiped my cheeks, tried to smile and blinked the rest of my sadness away.

  "Lemonade?" the Doc rumbled with a smile out from under his moustache. I sniffed again and nodded yes. He turned and waved a hands towards the sitting room where I should take a seat while he collected Mrs. Livens for the lemonade. He came back, settled with a sigh into his old leather chair and weaved his fingers together over his large belly. "Now. Tell me what the trouble is."

  I felt my lip start to quiver again, but managed to hold myself together. Even the Doc wouldn't just let me cry forever before he said enough was enough. I decided the best way was just to be straight with him.

  "I've been robbed."

  I haven't ever seen the Doc move that fast as he did bolting up in that chair. His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

  "Lord, Grace, what in the hell?!?"

  I wasn't quite sure of what to make of the question, never having seen the Doc so worked up. He was always the calm one, it seemed.

  "It's nothing to fret about," I said, waving my hands at him to try to calm his demeanour.

  "Are you hurt?" The question snapped out of his mouth at me, his usual softness suddenly gone.

  "Just a bump on the head," I replied, "it's nothing."

  The Doc jumped up and walked round the little table between us and put his massive hands on my head, twisting and turning it this way and that, looking for what might be damaged. I poked a finger at the spot where it hurt most and he poked and prodded at it for a little while, watching me wince and cringe as he did to determine what might be wrong. Once he was satisfied that my head was in one piece, he walked back over to his chair and settled into it again, but not nearly as comfortably this time.

  Mrs. Livens walked in with the lemonade, glasses clinking on her tray. She seemed to sense that something was out of sorts because she skipped her usual banter with the Doc, put the tray on the table and turned and walked out almost immediately. The Doc didn't bother to pour the lemonade, just fixed me with that stare of his, one I'd seldom seen before, and held me with it for a while before he started to talk.

  "What'd they take?" he asked, the question rough and unforgiving. Another swell at the thought of what I had to tell him. I clenched my teeth and looked down hard at the ground for a spell before I had the courage to meet his gaze again.

  "Everything." The word came out sounding almost broken and I had to fight just to get it out without erupting into another fit of tears. I watched the Doc's face harden even more and a certain terror gripped my heart at what he might be thinking. He didn't like the idea of me up there on my own any more'n any of the other men around those parts did, but he'd sworn to my daddy he'd take care of me and I knew he felt like this was letting daddy down. Except I was the one that made him do it, convinced him I could face it out there on my own.

  "Grace," the Doc growled. It was definitely a growl this time.

  "Doc," I began, putting up a hand, ready to counter what he was about to say.

  "No. Not this time, Grace." The Doc's words fell like heavy stones on the wood floor. This wasn't going to be easy.

  The knock on the door relieved some of the pressure in my chest. Any distraction to give me time to come up with a good argument for why I should keep living up on the ranch, how I could prove to him that I could do things on my own.

  The Doc rose slowly and trundled towards the door. He shooed Mrs. Livens away with a wave of his hand and opened the door himself. The heavy footfall of cowboy boots combined with the clatter of spurs filled the hall and any relief I may have felt quickly faded at the thought of who was at the door. Tilting my head slightly confirmed my suspicions as I saw the sheriff's black suit, punctuated by the single silver star on his chest. This was not good timing.

  "New horse, Doc?" Sheriff Sam Spencer's gravelly voice crawled past the Doc and across the floor towards me sending a shiver, the bad kind this time, crawling up my spine.

  "Come on in Sam," the Doc replied. "We've got trouble."

  I turned towards the pair as they walked into the room, doing my best to smile and act surprised at the sight of the sheriff. He nodded and put a finger to his hat at the sight of me.

  "Miss Grace, pleasure to see you."

  "What a nice surprise to see you, Sam." I couldn't keep all the smugness out of my voice. I'd never liked the man.

  "We can drop the pleasantries," the Doc said, surprising both Sam and I with his gruffness. "There's business to attend to, now more than I thought and not much time to attend to it. Take a seat Sam."

  Sam sat down beside me and gave me a look, like I was somehow complicit in the Doc's change in behaviour. I suppose I was, but didn't want to let on to him especially, what this was all about. Turns out the Doc would do that for me.

  "I was going to come and tell you like I said, but now's you're here and now that Sam's here too, we may as well take care of all of this at once."

  I looked slowly from one man to the other, not sure of where this was going or what the good Doc had in store for me, exactly.

  "Take care of what?" I asked slowly.

  "Gracey, I promised your Pappy on the day he died that no matter what I'd take care of you till the day you wed. Well, I'm a man of my word, always have been and I will be until the good Lord decides it's time for me to go. I'm not leaving this earth knowing that I didn't do right by your Pa. I done my best to try to let you live out there on your lonesome, like you said you wanted. I done my best to help you run that ranch but Grace, that operation's just too big for a single man or woman. Not to mention that when I go, the title to that land can't be willed to you, you know that as well as I. And now, with this robbery..."

  "Robbery?" The Sheriff's voice interrupted the Doc in mid-sentence as he looked up at the man with wide eyes. The Doc let out a sigh.

  "You may as well know Sam, I suppose you would have found out soon enough. Someone up and robbed the ranch up there, left Grace a with pretty nasty bruise on her noggin'." The Doc shot me a scowl, "Lucky that nothing happened beyond that," he said, furrowing his brow. Truth of the matter was, I knew that he was right.

  "Horse thieves?" Sam asked in a low voice. The Doc just shook his head.

  "They took everything, Sam," the Doc explained.

  Sam slowly levelled his gaze at me, holding me with his steely-eyed stare. Sent another shiver up my back before he spoke.

  "Everything?" he asked, his voice still low.

  "What they didn't take, they broke. They left Destiny," I replied, finally looking away and realizing that the whole thing had come off sounding
and looking much more casual than I'd intended. The two men sat in silence for a few moments, staring at me and filling the room with a quiet displeasure at what must have seemed my flippant manner.

  "You get a look at 'em? Had to be more than one to make off with that kind of haul," Sam grumbled. I shook my head.

  "I was snuffed out like a candle for the whole thing," I said, trying to sound more serious and meeting his stare. He was the one to look away first this time. The Doc didn't wait long for us to sit in silence before going on.

  "You can give Sam all the details later. You'll have plenty of time. Gracey, I'm passing over care of you to Sam. By that, I mean that he's to marry you and you're to be his wife."

  There aren't many days in a person's life where time stops three times in a row. Well, time stopped for a third time that day and my heart stopped with it. I stared at the Doc with my wide eyes, a fiery anger clutching at my throat. I'd always hated Sam Spencer, most everyone did. Him and my daddy had never gotten along and he was always looking for ways to make trouble, not just for us but for lots of folk. Daddy always suspected he was after our land in one way or another. Steered clear of him for the most part, but I'd overheard one too many conversation between him and the Doc on just that subject to take this news lying down.