CHAPTER 8
Joanie
I sat next to Billie at the Doll’s meeting and cursed the way I could still feel my pulse beating between my thighs. Chase had played by the rules and left with the sunrise that morning, but I could still feel him all over me. I could still taste him in my mouth and I swore his scent had embedded itself in my nose. I shifted and tried not to wince when the seam of my jeans rubbed my sore body. After I’d given Chase the greenlight to wreck me, he’d done his best to kill me with orgasms. I hadn’t slept and no amount of showering seemed to get rid of the feeling of his come inside me. Even in pleasuring me, he’d cursed me.
Billie cleared her throat and leaned closer. “You okay?”
I flinched and nodded too quickly. “Yep. I’m great.”
Her wide-eyed brown gaze swept over me, taking in my thicker than normal makeup and clothing choice to cover myself completely, despite it being hot as hell outside. “Uh-huh.”
Margaret James was at the front of the room, ranting about Mayor Stevens. It was pretty typical, so tuning her out meant we didn’t miss much. She’d owned and operated Good, Clean Fun for so long that it’d become a staple in the Harmony Valley community. And more than Good, Clean Fun, she ran Doll’s. A speakeasy type room at the back of her soaps and candles storefront, Doll’s was a secret space for the severely outnumbered women of Harmony Valley. Women had been gathering at Doll’s for decades and it had to be the best kept secret around.
No men knew where the women went off to so often, but Doll’s was a meeting space and a safe space. Not just for ranting and venting about the men in our lives, which is what Margaret was doing, but it was also a place which introduced women to pleasure they might not have had access to before Doll’s. The walls were lined with sex toys of every kind and Margaret came up with new flavored lube so often that a woman could give a fruit basket without a single ounce of nutrition if she wanted to. Simply put, it was amazing.
For the past nine months, Margaret and Mayor Stevens had been battling and once he’d threatened her business license, she’d taken to all-out war. There was a battle of the sexes planned as soon as Mayor Stevens stopped putting it off and the winner would be the next town mayor. It was insane and I loved every bit of it. I’d been raised in an uptight upper society which acted like women didn’t use the bathroom or raise their voices. Decisions were made in board rooms by wealthy old men and mayors were chosen and run by backers with money and plans. I’d watched my own parents play the game a few times, throwing their money at a politician they liked and felt they could push into doing what they wanted. In Lilyfield, the largest little town in Harmony Valley, mayor was going to be decided by a battle of the sexes and I couldn’t get enough of it.
Only Margaret was ranting about Mayor Stevens in the same way she had the week before because nothing had changed and my attention was nonexistent, so I leaned closer to Billie. We’d become friends during one of my first Doll’s meetings, but we’d only gotten closer when the two of us and our other best friend, Violet, had gone out for drinks a while back. Billie had her own version of listening to Margaret rant the same rant over and over again. It was me ranting about Chase over and over again. She’d listened to me screaming about him for months.
“I did something bad last night.”
Billie’s eyes narrowed. “If you tell me you didn’t replenish the chocolate muffins, I’ll murder you. Those muffins are the only things getting me through these days.”
“The muffins are replenished. Relax about the muffins. Last week you threatened me when I didn’t have them ready first thing in the morning. The muffins are becoming a problem for you.” I shook my head. “I should cut you off.”
“Cut me off and I’ll cut you.” She smiled sweetly but it verged on crazy. “If I don’t eat one of those muffins before facing my bosses, I fantasize about driving a tractor over them, Joanie. I need the muffins.”
“Violet wasn’t even this nuts with her cherry pie craving.” I realized the meeting was over and saw that Margaret was heading our way. “Shit.”
I loved Margaret. You wouldn’t find a woman in Harmony Valley who didn’t. She was a meddler, though. She and her two best friends, Brenda and CoCo, might as well have been professional investigators. Margaret could smell a story and her nostrils might as well have been flaring as she closed in on me.
“Something’s different about you and I don’t just mean the amount of clothing you’re wearing. You came in here walking like you got ridden hard last night. You’ve got a wild look in your eyes, too, like you might consider running.” Her eyes narrowed. “Plus, CoCo was looking into those two new fellas next door to you and she saw Chase Daniels walking out of your house first thing this morning like a big, happy peacock.”
Billie gasped like she was watching a soap opera and slapped my thigh. “No, you didn’t!”
Margaret grinned. “She did. And judging by the amount of covering up she’s doing, so did Chase. I knew the two of you couldn’t last next to each other without exploding. It took you longer than I thought, though. I gave you two weeks when he first showed up here a year ago. Brenda gave you a week and CoCo had the most faith in you. She gave you a month.”
My mouth hung open for longer than was necessarily safe in a room full of wild women and dildos. Before anyone got any ideas, I snapped it shut and shook my head. I was going with the tried-and-true plan of deny, deny, deny. “No, sorry. He just stopped by to pick up something for the diner.”
“CoCo also said that your walls are very thin and she wouldn’t be surprised if your new neighbors heard you with all the screaming you were doing.” Margaret cackled when I slapped my hands over my face. “I’m going to have to take a second look at Chase Daniels, young lady. He’s so kind to everyone around town that I didn’t take him for the type to make a woman scream like that. Not that his looks alone couldn’t make me holler.”
Billie squealed. “I need details! I need to know how he made you scream and how long it lasted and how long it was! I’m sorry, but I’ve been going through a spell of sex with men who don’t know what a clit is and I just need to live vicariously through a woman who got nailed.”
“No, no, no. I’m not talking about it because it never happened. Got it?” I brushed my hair back from my face and stood up. “Nothing happened and I’m not walking funny. I’m fine. I’m going to walk next door and work in my diner like it’s any other morning.”
“Hmm. We’ll see about it being nothing.” Margaret winked at me and walked away to harass someone else.
I frowned at Billie. “She’s going to meddle. She’s going to meddle and I’m going to have to leave town.”
“You better not. With Violet locked down with her men after popping out the baby last week, I realized that as much as I need the muffins, I also need time with my friends to pretend I don’t live and work with a bunch of dicks.”
“Maybe I’ll tell Margaret to meddle with your life instead of mine.”
“You’d better not! I have enough to handle without any of the guys who work on the ranch getting any ideas.” She blushed. “And god knows my bosses don’t even see me as a woman, much less a viable one.”
I scoffed. “They’d have to be the biggest idiots alive to not see you as a woman.”
“We’re not talking about me, though. We’re talking about you and how you had wild sex with the man you hate last night.” She bumped me with her shoulder. “Still hate him?”
I swallowed. “Yes. Of course. Nothing’s changed.”
Her eyes danced with mischief. “I don’t believe you. I can’t wait to talk to Violet later. She’s going to pop a stitch when she hears this.”
I blew out a deep sigh. “I know I can’t stop you, so I won’t try…much. If you tell her, I won’t give you a single muffin for the rest of your life.”
She jumped up from the pink couch and narrowed her eyes. “You know who will give me my muffins if you won’t?”
“Billie!” I stood up and hurried after her as she slipped out of Doll’s and back into Good, Clean Fun. “You’d better not talk to him! If he knows you know, he’ll think I went to you, gushing about him.”
“Well, didn’t you?” She laughed and then froze so suddenly, I bumped into her. “Whoa.”
Following her gaze, I saw Bear standing on the sidewalk in front of us with a twin under each arm. He was just listening as they talked animatedly at him but there was a smile on his face which showed he was listening to them and enjoying whatever they were saying.
“Who’s the Scottish daddy?” Billie leaned into me and sighed dramatically. “I’m already jealous of the woman who calls that man hers.”
Bear glanced into the shop and his gaze landed on me like a heat-seeking missile. The smile vanished in a split second and was replaced with a heated look that sent a shiver from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes. Then, he looked away and the moment was over as quickly as it’d happened. Yet, my heart was lodged somewhere just south of my sinuses and I had to make myself breathe again.
“Holy shit. Holy shit, Joanie! Do you know him?” Billie spun around to face me. “He just fucked you with his eyes and I felt it. God, I need to go change my panties now. Holy shit.”
I held onto her arm and shook my head, trying to clear it. “That’s one of my new neighbors. He saw me naked yesterday.”