Authors: Kylie James
Chapter
Six
Jake seemed to accept Tyler’s
words and headed off back to Dwayne.
“Come on. We better get back to
the cattle and horses,” Abby said as she looked into Tyler’s blue eyes.
“Hey, I meant what I said to
Jake. It wasn’t just said to please him it was the truth.”
“Good,” she whispered as she
stood on tiptoe and kissed him softly on the cheek. “Hey where did Lexi go?”
“She was here a minute ago,
perhaps she followed Jake back,” Tyler replied.
“Hopefully, she did and she
hasn’t wandered off into the trees. There are so many old mine shafts and deep
holes out here. We can’t ride through the trees due to that fact,” she said as
she began walking back with Tyler right behind her.
As soon as they appeared,
Dwayne gave a loud wolf-whistle and grinned, “Hey it’s the lovebirds!”
“Shut-up you twat!” Abby
replied. “No Lexi? We hoped she came back to you as she left us.”
“Haven’t seen her,” Jake said
as he smiled at Abby. She smiled back as she didn’t like bad feeling. They’d
all worked together well on the ranch, and she didn’t want to see that ruined.
“Lexi girl come on!” Dwayne
shouted into the trees.
“Lexi where are you?” Jake
called. Lexi was his dog primarily. They all were really, but she was special to
him as he’d rescued her from a neighboring ranch. The owners had been about to
destroy her and Jake had stepped in and saved her.
There was no sign of her
anywhere.
Roxy began whimpering and Ben
the Bluetick Coonhound started barking, “Shush, we’ll find her,” Dwayne
whispered to the dogs.
They quieted down and Jake
shouted to Lexi again, nothing.
The cattle were starting to get
restless, “We’re going to have to move them on Abby,” Dwayne sighed.
“What about Lexi? We can’t
leave her out here alone,” Jake snapped.
“If it’ll help, I’ll stay
behind. You don’t need me on the cattle drive anyhow,” Tyler said with genuine
concern in his voice.
“No, you’ll never find your way
back to the ranch from here Tyler. We can’t leave him here guys,” Abby cried as
she touched Tyler’s arm.
“He’ll be fine Abby. We’ll
leave Roxy. She’ll make sure he gets back and hopefully with Lexi too,” Dwayne
said.
“I’ll be fine Firecracker. Go
on with the cattle,” Tyler said softly turning to face Abby.
“Firecracker, I like that. If
you’re sure, it’d help as Lexi may come back here,” Abby answered smiling at
her new nickname.
“That’s settled then! Come on
Jake,” Dwayne said touching Jake’s arm gently. They all knew how much Lexi
meant to him, and as tough a cowboy as he liked to think he was he had a much
softer side.
Abby hated leaving Tyler but it
was the best plan, as they could drive the cattle herd with just the help of
Ben, KC, and Skip. She just prayed Tyler was going to be okay as he was a city
boy at the end of the day.
“Be safe,” she whispered in his
ear as she embraced him tightly.
“What do I do with Firefly? I
can ride, but I don’t know how to care for horses,” Tyler asked her.
“Just be sure to tie him up or
he’ll be gone Tyler. Let him drink and munch the grass here. He’ll be fine,”
she replied, as she tied Firefly’s reins to a tree herself to make sure it was
done properly.
“What? You don’t trust me to
tie a knot?” he asked.
“You’re a city boy and I’ve
spent my adult life around rope so which one do you think is better qualified
at tying knots?” she joked as she grinned at him.
“Point taken!” he smiled back
as he watched her tie the knot. She felt his arms wrapping her slim waist and
his soft lips kissing her neck softly.
“You trying to turn me on
again?” she laughed as she spun around, and standing on tiptoe kissed his warm
lips.
He kissed her back with hunger
and passion and held her tightly.
“Abby come on! Let’s get these
cattle out of here,” Jake shouted.
“Be careful Tyler,” Abby said
as she climbed on to Murphy and looked down at Tyler standing watching her with
Roxy at his side. He blew her a kiss and stroked Murphy’s neck gently.
Between her, Jake, and Dwayne,
they managed to drive the cattle back toward the open land with the help of the
three dogs. Jake told Roxy to ‘go back’ hoping she’d return to Tyler.
“Roxy’s here!” shouted Tyler’s
voice through the trees.
“Good, see you soon!” Dwayne
replied.
“He’ll be okay Abby, I
promise,” Jake whispered to her as he rode beside her.
“I hope so and I hope Lexi’s
okay Jake,” Abby replied.
“Me too,” answered Jake as he
rode away from Abby and around the side of the cattle. She rode to the front of
the cattle, as always, with Skip running alongside.
The cattle were going to a
pasture that they’d been to before. The plan was to leave Dwayne with Ben, as
there was a small farmhouse not far from the pasture, which the guys used every
so often.
The riding was quicker than
normal and Abby guessed the increased speed was due to Jake’s concern over
Lexi. He was anxious to get back.
They reached the pasture in
record time, and after stopping briefly to check all was well, Jake and Abby
rode back with KC and Skip for company.
“You okay on your own? You can
stay with me and the hounds if you want Abby,” Jake said as they reached the
Lone-Oak ranch.
“I’m good Jake, but thanks. Can
I steal Skip though for the night?”
“Of course, you can,” Jake
laughed as he went to sort his horse out and Abby and Skip made their way to
the stables behind the bungalow.
“There you go boy,” Abby
whispered softly in Murphy’s ear as she fed him some hay. It’d been a long day
and Abby was worried sick about Tyler, he wasn’t exactly the outdoor type. They
should never have left him and Roxy alone. They were all worried about Lexi,
but she was more concerned about the guy she was falling love with.
It’d all happened so quickly,
with her and Tyler having amazing sex, Lexi going missing, and she realized how
much Tyler meant to her.
She didn’t know much about him
at all, but she knew how she felt. No guy had ever made her feel the way he
did. She felt special around him.
Once the stables were sorted,
Skip and Abby went to the bungalow where they crawled under a warm blanket and
watched TV. Abby couldn’t concentrate on anything. Skip seemed to sense
something was worrying her as he kept whining and licking her nose.
“Right then little guy, let’s
get you out for your last pee before bed,” she said to the excited little
terrier that sat beside her. Skip leapt off the couch and ran to the backdoor
and Abby let him out staring up at the night’s sky as she did so.
“Please keep Tyler safe
tonight,” she muttered at the sky. Abby wasn’t particularly religious but had
been known to say the odd prayer in a time of need. This was a time of need as
far as she was concerned; the man she loved was alone in the wilderness with
only a Border Collie for company.
Skip came running in after a
speedy pee. It was an unusually cold night for the summer and he wasn’t hanging
around outside any longer than he needed to.
Sleep wasn’t Abby’s mate that
night and avoided her at all costs. The next morning, she crawled out of bed
and let Skip out.
“Skip shush boy, what’s all the
barking for? Skip quiet!” she shouted from the back door. Abby was dressed in
her short-sleeved satin pajamas and fluffy slippers with her long red hair
tumbling over her shoulders.
Skip kept barking until Abby
went outside to see what all the fuss was about and there, coming across the
field toward the bungalow and the ranch was Firefly. Tyler was riding him but
slouched over. Abby ran toward them with her pert breasts threatening to escape
from her flimsy pajama top.
“Tyler! Tyler!” she screamed
with tears running down her soft cheeks.
Firefly obediently kept walking
toward Abby, and as she ran to meet the beautiful horse and rider, she saw why
Tyler was slumped over. He wasn’t hurt, as she’d initially thought. He was
protecting Lexi. The Australian Shepherd was wrapped inside his shirt and his
naked chest was keeping her warm.
“Firecracker get Jake! She’s
hurt,” Tyler muttered.
Abby ran back inside and phoned
Jake’s cell. He was just waking up but as soon as Abby mentioned that Lexi was
back, he hung up straight away, and within minutes was at the front of the
bungalow.
“Jeez Tyler you look like
shit!” Jake said as he walked toward him. “Lexi, awww my little girl! Where’s
she hurt Tyler?”
“Her leg mate, front left. She
came limping over to me and Roxy in the dark. I think she was afraid to come
out in daylight,” Tyler replied. “So I waited until morning to ride back.”
“Sensible choice,” Jake said as
he and Abby lifted Lexi down. She whimpered but Jake could see her leg was just
cut, nothing serious. “How can I ever thank you Tyler mate?”
Tyler smiled down at Abby, “By
accepting me and Abby and by accepting the huge amount of cash, as the billionaire
that I am that I’m putting into the Lone-Oak ranch.”
“I knew it! You’ve got money!”
Abby shrieked with delight.
“Done deal Tyler, done deal!”
Jake answered with a huge grin on his face as he carried Lexi back to his
place.
“Dwayne will be thrilled, as am
I, my mysterious rich guy,” said Abby as she helped him off Firefly, and as he
wrapped his strong arms around her slim waist, she felt like the luckiest girl
alive. His lips captured hers and Skip barked happily with approval.
THE END
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Chapter One:
Preparing
for Takeoff
Deidre
rolled her eyes as she surfed the internet on her wristlet-phone. After
spending most of her days at the Vogma'at Intergalactic Airport, she found
herself bored waiting in the terminals for her next orbital flight. With a
sigh, she flicked her wrist and the screen of her wristlet-phone went black.
She looked up at the holograph of the various flight listings. Narrowing her
eyes, she found her flight and she noticed that it was delayed for the second
time. She scoffed.
“
Again?
”
A
family of Martians strolled by with a screaming, blue-skinned baby. Deidre
rubbed her temples, and the Martian baby's mother gave her a dirty look. She
then murmured a rude remark in her own language and hurried away with her
husband and children. Deidre frowned and let out a heavy sigh.
Suddenly,
one of her coworkers, Maleeq, sat beside her, puffing on an electronic
cigarette. She blew orange-scented vapor in Deidre's face and smiled.
Maleeq
was a native to a faraway planet in a solar system Deidre could never remember.
She recalled that the planet had a lot of numbers in it, but she felt rude
asking her more than once, so she always just pretended she knew. Maleeq had
dark orange skin with chartreuse eyes and a flat, animal-like nose, yet she was
still beautiful in a way. Deidre always secretly envied her beauty.
“Where
you headed today, Blue?” Maleeq asked.
Deidre
had become known as the girl named Blue, due to her sky blue hair and neon
violet-and-blue eyes. She had been taking genetic modifiers for years to
achieve the magnificent colors; it was something of which she was quite proud.
Nevertheless, she still hated the nickname, so she cringed.
“Can I
have a puff of that?” she murmured, holding out her hand.
“You're
going to Rorak again, huh?” Maleeq guessed, handing Deidre the electronic
cigarette.
“You
called it.”
Deidre
ran her finger across the touch-pad and scrolled through the flavor choices for
a moment before selecting the pomegranate option. She took a long drag and blew
the vapor out of her nose.
“That
sucks,” Maleeq said. “Smells like garbage once you're within a few light years
of its orbit. I swear it's those boils.”
Deidre
chuckled and nodded, taking another long puff from the electronic cigarette.
“Could
be the bugs or whatever the hell those are they like to keep in their...hair?
Is it hair?” she asked, laughing. “I really don't know what the hell that is.”
“I
think it's hair,” Maleeq agree, scratching her beautiful, bald,
naturally-patterned head. “I don't think those are bugs, though. They always
call them fungus plasmoids.”
“Plasmoids?
What the hell is a plasmoid?”
“Those
fungus-eating bug things in Roraki hair.”
“Fair
enough,” Deidre murmured, taking another long drag. She handed the electronic
cigarette back to Maleeq and continued, “I really don't wanna go though. I
transferred back to the Earth location, so I didn't have to keep going to
Rorak. I might as well still be working on Maggron like I was.”
Maleeq
chuckled and asked, “You think Bogar is doing it just to mess with you?”
“Might
be,” Deidre muttered with a shrug. “He's just pissed I wouldn't work thirds for
him like he wanted last year. Should have known he was going to be the goddamn
shift leader by the time I got back.”
“Oh,
screw him,” Maleeq said. “He wanted you to work thirds for like six months and
you had seniority. He was being a jerk to you just because you wouldn't sleep
with him.”
Deidre
shuddered and made a face. Maleeq chuckled.
“I just
can't stand the smell of their goo,” Deidre said, making a throaty sound. “Not
that
kind of goo—just their, you know,
goo
.”
Maleeq
laughed and replied, “Yeah, yeah, I know. I dated a guy from Colia 781 for a
while. It leaks everywhere
all the time
. It'd always be trailing around
us in public, and janitors would glare at us. It was embarrassing, you know?
It's not like we could hide it. They knew it was from him because there was a
big trail of yellow gunk all the way up to his foot. Absolutely disgusting. He
sneezed and got some of it in my Lofratian food, and I just left. Never called
him again.”
Deidre
snorted.
“Where
are you headed today?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Morta,”
Maleeq replied, puffing on her electronic cigarette. She blew a cloud of
bubblegum vapor in Deidre's face and added, “I'm the only one with a
respiratory system able to handle it so I get to go. Not looking forward to
it.”
Deidre
made a face.
“I
thought my day sucked,” she said. “Isn't half of that place made of uranium?”
“Yep,”
Maleeq said with a heavy sigh. “I guess the military is mining it or
something.”
“You
have to take a military flight too?” Deidre asked, frowning. “I thought the
flight to Rorak was the only military flight today.”
“Nah,
they've got a flight to Morta too. They didn't put it on the main schedule for
intergalactic intelligence reasons, I guess. That's why they stuck me with it.
I was the only one with the genetic position to travel there, and they didn't
think I'd blab, I suppose.”
“Yet,
you're blabbing to me,” Deidre replied, amused.
“Yeah,
whatever. Bogar and intergalactic intelligence laws can bite me. I'm hoping I
at least can pick up a cute soldier or something,” Maleeq said, chuckling.
“There's this really cute cyborg I saw looking at me earlier.”
“Oh
yeah?” Deidre said, trying her best to seem happy for her friend.
She had
been alone for a very long time, and Maleeq always had men interested in her.
Deidre had only had their creepy boss hit on her, completely inappropriately.
Sometimes, she found it difficult not to express her dissatisfaction.
“Yeah,
I think he's British,” Maleeq said, dreamily. “I love British men, especially
British
cyborg
men. Cyborgs are
so
much better in bed.”
“When
do you have to go to Morta?” Deidre asked, changing the subject.
Maleeq
looked up at the clock and her chartreuse eyes widened.
“Crap!
I was supposed to be there five minutes ago!”
“You
better hurry,” Deidre said, quickly glancing at the holographic clock hovering
just beneath the ceiling. “I think Josephine is running the Morta flight lately
and she likes taking off as soon as she can.”
Maleeq
nodded.
“Yeah,
she's a hell of a pilot, though. She's been getting there within two hours
every time. Hell, five-hundred years ago, a flight from Michigan to Florida
could take longer,” she noted. “Anyway, I better get going. I'll catch you
later, alright?”
Deidre
nodded and waggled her fingers as Maleeq hurried away towards her gate. She
then sighed and rubbed her temples. Rorak was always the worst flight, and she
felt like she had nothing to look forward to that day. Little did she know, she
was very, very wrong. Something was about to happen that would change her life.