When they got to the parking lot, they sat in the car in silence, the air blasting them in the face.

“Are you all right?” Autumn finally asked.

Instead of answering her question he said, “We need to find a hotel, and then I need to find a quiet place to talk to Mom. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Autumn said.

They sat for a few more moments, he put the car into gear and they drove around for about twenty minutes until they found a hotel with a vacancy. One room, two beds. Autumn thought about asking if they could search for a place with two rooms, but decided Shawn might need the company right now. He had made a promise not to touch her, and she didn’t plan on asking. She was safe in that regard.

They checked into the room and once their bags were inside he said, “I’ll be back. Do I need to bring anything back?”

“Maybe some snacks,” she said. “The burger was dinner enough for me.”

He nodded and left, and when she was alone, Autumn wondered what he was feeling. His father had not been one of the robbers, but he was involved in hiding the loot. Or maybe he didn’t know it was stolen. Perhaps Jane had told him that Kate was hiding things from her soon to be ex husband. But if that were the case, why would he not question the fact they never returned for the items?

And then something hit her, like a brick falling out of the sky. What if Shawn’s father was really Earnest? What if Kate lied to them about Stuart being the helper? Who had control of the Hollis land in 1964? Was it Stuart himself, or his father? Or brothers, or cousins? There were so many question that didn’t get answered. Maybe Shawn would have answers to the questions when he returned.

Autumn pulled out her phone and did a search on the ranch. It had opened eight years ago. The history showed that it had been in the Hollis family for generations, and they had worked the silver mines. That’s where the family had made their money, thought the mines.

She wondered if Shawn’s mother knew what sort of resort he ran, or if she really cared. She probably had the money she wanted, and was enjoying her life in Florida. If Mrs. Hollis was angry about the questions Shawn asked, it might take a while for him to get the information he wanted.

She thought about taking a bath while he was gone, a long, soaking bath. She didn't have any bubbles, but soaking in hot water was one of her favorite past times.

She had just stood up to take off her clothes when the door opened. Shawn strolled in with no snacks or drinks, and a foul expression on his face.

“That was fast,” she said as he plopped down on one of the beds.

“She didn’t answer,” he said. “I left a message. She could be playing golf, bridge, or playing with her boy toy.”

Autumn’s eyes widened. “She has a boy toy?”

“Yup,” Shawn said with a laugh. “I met him the last time I visited her, about six months ago. He’s about ten years older than I am, maybe fifteen.”

“Does that bother you?” Autumn asked.

“Nope,” he said. “I hope she’s enjoying herself.”

“You’re better than I am,” Autumn said. “I’m not sure how I would feel about my mother having a boy toy.”

“Well, you have hang-ups about sex,” he said. “It’s not surprising to me that you wouldn’t want your mother to enjoy sex.”

“I do not have hang-ups,” she said. She turned her face away from his. “I just don’t have a lot of experience in that department.”

“Define a lot,” he said.

“I’ve had two lovers,” she said. Why was she telling him this? She waited for him to make fun of her, but he didn’t, which surprised her.

“That just makes you selective,” he said. “I rather like that.”

“You can’t say you’ve only had two lovers, can you?”

“It really depends on your definition of lovers,” he said. “If your definition is intercourse, I’ve had six. If you think it’s playing with people, doing scenes and the like, then it’s a few more.”

“Define few,” she said with a laugh.

“More than twenty, less than thirty,” he said. “Sometimes ladies come to the resort and they need a lesson or two. In that respect we really don’t have sex. Although they do have an orgasm, like you did last night.”

She blushed. “Do you consider what we did last night having sex?”

“Yes,” he said. “I had your clit in my mouth. That’s more than just a lesson.”

“So, you’ve never—feasted—on the other ladies?”

“No,” he said.

“Then why did you do it to me?”

“Because I wanted to,” he said. “I’m attracted to you, Autumn. But I meant it when I said I would not touch you again unless you asked.”

“And I told you I’d never ask,” she said.

“We’ll see,” he said.

His phone rang the minute the words were out of his mouth.

“Saved by the bell,” she said as he looked at the screen.

“Hello, Mom,” he said as he held it up to his ear. “Thanks for calling me back.”

He chuckled before he said, “Of course, you always return my calls. I didn’t mean it that way. I’m here with my friend, Autumn, and I wanted to ask you a question about Dad. Can I put you on speaker?”

Autumn figured he’d received a positive answer, because he did just that.

“Mom this is Autumn, Autumn this is my mother.”

“Hello, Mrs. Hollis,” Autumn said.

“Please, dear, call me Sylvia.”

“Very well,” Autumn said. “If you don’t want to answer Shawn’s questions in front of me, I understand.”

“Nonsense, ask away, Shawn,” Sylvia said.

“Did Dad help hide thousands of dollars, and possibly a valuable necklace, in 1964?”

Sylvia had obviously been drinking something, because she started to cough and it sounded as if she were spitting up water.

“Mom?” Shawn asked. “Are you all right?”

“Give me—a moment—” she said between coughs.

They waited, and finally Sylvia said, “How do you know that? Have you been out digging by the mines? Did you find something? Your father told me it would never be found.”

Autumn stayed silent as Shawn explained about the storage unit, and about her visit.

“Clever girl,” Sylvia said. “To the best of my knowledge the money is still there. Your father never said anything about a necklace, though.”

There was a short pause. “He loved Jane, not enough to spend the rest of his life with her, but he did love her. It was before I met him.”

“You talk about it so casually,” Shawn said.

“Oh, you of all people should know that you can be lovers with someone without being in love with them,” Sylvia said. “Sometimes you have to kiss a lot of people before you find your prince, or princess, as the case may be.”

There was a pause before Sylvia said, “Your father was the love of my life, Shawn. When he died it cut me to the core. I could never love another man like I loved him. But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy male company.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Shawn said with a laugh. “Love you.”

“And I love you,” Sylvia said. “Autumn, I hope to meet you in person at some point in time. Have fun on your treasure hunt, you two. Ta-ta.”

She hung up before they could respond.

“That’s Mom,” Shawn said. “She never was one to stick around and chat.”

“She’s a character,” Autumn said.

“I know it’s trite to say, but I’m incredibly lucky that she’s my Mom,” he said.

Autumn didn’t respond. Her mother had always given Autumn the impression that Autumn was a bit of a nuisance to have around. As she grew, Autumn spent less time at home. Nowadays she barely spent ten minutes at a time on the phone with her mother, and was never invited over for dinner unless it was a holiday. Autumn’s dad was the same way, preferring to spend more time on the golf course instead of with his family.

“Something wrong?” Shawn asked.

“My relationship with my family is not as good as yours,” she said. “Call me jealous.”

“I’d rather call you apprentice,” he said with a laugh. Then he stood and slapped his hands against his thighs. “I’ll go gather drinks and snacks. It shouldn’t take long.”

He was out the door before she could say anything, and she thought to herself that he and his mother shared the trait of not waiting for other people to put in their two cents at the end of a conversation.

She took advantage of him being gone to strip and slip into the tub. The warm water caressed her skin as she closed her eyes and sank deep down. She wished for the large tub, complete with jets, in her cabin at Silver Creek.

The tub at the resort was big enough for two, and she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to take a bath with Shawn. As much as she wanted to ignore what had happened between them, her nipples reacted every time he was near. They grew hard, and tingly, and her clit pulsed with need.

This wasn’t supposed to be happening. She was supposed to make money and be done with this, and here she was, in Colorado Springs, thinking about asking Shawn to ravish her, to make her come as hard as he had the other evening.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” she said as she slapped her fists against the water.

“Have I said something to make you angry?”

Autumn jerked her head toward the doorway, her body moving and sloshing more water over the side of the tub. “I thought you left to get snacks.”

“I didn’t ask if you wanted salty or sweet.” He leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest. “Are you angry about something?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I am,” she said. “I’m not supposed to be thinking about sex. I’m supposed to be hunting treasure and making money to pay bills and maybe buy a new car. But, no, you had to go and put your teeth on me and make me wonder what it would feel like to…”

She let her words drift off. “You should never have done what you did.”

“I did it so I could get your attention,” he said. “It worked. Now, salty or sweet? When I come back I’ll tell you the story of my first experience with BDSM. It might help you with the things you’re feeling now.”

“Both,” she said. “I want chocolate, and I want crunchy salty stuff. And diet soda. Lots of it.” She hated that he knew she was having trouble with her feelings, that he’d attracted her attention by making her, well basically explode with just a few touches.

“Got it,” he said. “I’ll be right back. Finish your bath and get dressed, or I won’t be responsible for my actions when I return.”

Autumn giggled. She heard the door close and realized she’d been naked while he stood there looking at her, and it didn’t bother her at all.

She bathed quickly and changed into shorts and a t-shirt; she left her bra off. She waited for what seemed like forever. She turned on the TV and surfed through the channels looking for something to watch. When he finally came back more than an hour and a half later she crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

“Took you long enough,” she said.

“I had to make a stop for something, and it took me a while to find it,” he said. He tossed one small package on his bed, and then put three bags on hers. She saw chips, peanuts, and to her delight, chocolate.

“Yum,” she said as she muted the TV. She reached for the bag of chips. She’d had enough to eat at the care center, but she was tense, sexually tense, and eating might calm her nerves, or so she hoped. “Okay, tell me your story,” she said after she’d ripped open the bag and eaten a few.

“You’re pretty bossy,” Shawn said as he opened his own bag of chips. He settled on his bed, which she was very happy about. She wasn’t sure she would be able to control herself if he’d taken up residence on her bed.

“So, you want my first experience,” he said. “I was twenty-seven at the time.”

“Not that long ago,” she said.

“You’re trying to play on my ego,” he said. “That was more than ten years ago. As I creep closer to forty I realize how long ago it really was.”

“Was it an older woman, or a younger one?” she asked. She realized her question was probably pushing things. “Sorry, it’s the journalist in me.”

“Well, sit back and listen, or I’ll tie you to the headboard and gag you.” He gave her a look that made her gasp. “Sorry, it’s the Dom in me.”

“Sarcasm does not become you,” she said, but she smiled.

“On the contrary, my sweet apprentice, I’m very good at it.” He ate a chip before he said, “Now, are you going to behave and listen, or do I need to spank your little bottom?”

“That would be interesting, since you said you wouldn’t touch me unless I asked for it.” She ate her own chips. “Or was there some sort of caveat in there that you didn’t tell me about?”

He narrowed his eyes, and she smiled as she ate another chip. She waited for him to speak, but he didn’t. And he didn’t eat, either. He just stared at her, and she swore she could feel his hand slapping against her bottom as he did.

“Okay, I’ll behave,” she said. “I’ll stay in my space and I won’t interrupt any more. But I reserve the right to ask questions after.”

He nodded ever so slightly.

“Like I said, I was twenty-seven, and living in Las Vegas.” He paused, and she wondered if he were deciding how much to tell her. “I worked as a blackjack dealer at a friend’s casino.”

He paused and ate some more, and once again she wondered what he was thinking. She wanted to push, to prod, to dig deeper.

“I only did it because he thought one of his dealers was helping his friends to win, and he wanted me to friend the guy and see if I could figure out how he was doing it?”

Autumn pushed away the chips and put her fists to her mouth. She took them away when she heard him laughing.

“I have to admire your self-control,” he said. “I can see you want this to be an interview.”

All she could do was nod.

“I’ll give you three questions,” he said. “Use them wisely.”

“Was the person stealing and did you figure it out?”

“That’s two,” he said.

“No, that was one question, broken into two parts,” she said. “It all depends on the punctuation. If I’d ended the sentence with a question mark, that would have been one question, but I said and, which made it a compound question, but just one.”

He shook his head, but she could see the smile edging at the side of his mouth. “All right, Ms. Grammarian. No more compound questions. The question is yes, he was helping his friends to win, but we never quite figured out how. He outsmarted us in that way.”

“Okay,” she said. “What happened next?”

“There’s your second question,” he said. “I would think you would be more careful than that.”

“Oh, for the love of all the stars in the sky,” she said, repeating a phase her mother used quite a bit. “Are you really going to ding me for that?”

“You bet your ass I am,” he said. “Watch what you ask.”

Autumn clamped her mouth shut.

He stared at her for a moment, and then he winked. “One afternoon a lady sat at my table, and she played. She won some, and she lost some. I found out later she was about fifteen years old then me.”

Ah, a cougar, Autumn wanted to say. Instead she put a chip in her mouth and chewed.

“One afternoon she slipped me a chip and asked if I’d come have a drink with her,” he said. “I gave her the chip back and told her I’d love to have a drink with her, but she didn’t have to pay me to do it.”

“After a few drinks we went to her room,” he said. “She was luscious. But she loved to be tied up, and she loved to be spanked. I knew diddly squat about either, and she taught me.”

Should she waste her last question now, or should she wait to see what he had to say? She wanted him to hurry, to get to the point. He needed to add details. Instead of asking a question she rolled her hands in front of her, asking him to hurry things along.

In response he ate a chip, very slowly. He chewed and chewed and then swallowed. He reached for his soda, which was in a plastic cup with a straw, and slurped some down, making noise as he did. He took another chip into his mouth and she groaned.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“You’re taking too long,” she said. “And that wasn’t my last question.”

He chuckled. “Well, that’s the story.”

“Bull,” she said. “That was a lead. To make a story you need a lead, the body and the ending. By the way, the ending needs to be things that, if they need to be cut, won’t make a difference to the story.”

“Thanks for the lesson.” He put down his chips. “Listen, I know you’re intrigued by the idea of what we could do together. I see it in your eyes when you look at me. But you’re worried that you don’t know anything about BDSM. I didn’t either.”

Their gazes locked, and he clicked his teeth together. “Delores, the lady I’m telling you about, she was very experienced. She loved to be spanked, and she taught me how to warm a woman up, and then deliver swats until she was swooning for more.”

“The first few times didn’t go so well, and I wondered about my ability to please her in that manner,” he said. “The first time I spanked her—well, let’s just say it was embarrassing. I slapped her so hard that she cried. I felt horrible and said I wouldn’t be any good at it. It took four tries before I felt like I got it right, and it was a lot more after that before I felt the confidence that I have now. You learn BDSM, both the Dom and the sub. You’re not born with those skills.”

Now she really wanted to ask a question, but she wasn’t sure if he would say something else that she needed to question.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “You hear terms like she’s a natural born sub, or he’s a natural born Dom.”

“I’ve never heard those words, because I don’t know anyone—or rather I didn’t know anyone in the lifestyle until I met you.”

“You’d be surprised,” he said. “I would make a bet that some of your friends take part, and you just don’t know it.”

“Doubtful,” she said. “But it’s not something you can just out and out ask someone.”

“Sure, you can,” he said. “I imagine those who take part will be willing to share their experiences, just as I am with you.”

“Yours don’t sound that bad,” Autumn said. “So, it was bad a few times.”

Shawn coughed to clear his throat. “The first time I spanked her with a belt I hit her wrong and it cut her butt cheek open. Seven stitches. The cops were at her door the next day demanding to know who had beat her. Mind you by this time we were meeting at her house and not at a hotel. She told them she’d slipped, and I felt like shit. It took ages for her to convince me to do it again, and we went to a club where I took lessons from someone who knew what they were doing.”

“Your story doesn’t instill confidence in me,” she said. “In fact, it reinforces my idea that BDSM is bad. Stitches on my ass? No thank you.”

“You’ll notice I kept going, even though I wasn’t thrilled with what happened, and Delores and I stayed lovers for a long time.”

“Where is she now?”

“Married, and living in New York City,” he said. “You’re missing the point. If you’re interested in something, you should give it a try, but with proper instructions.”

“I’m not interested,” she said.

“You’re a liar,” he said.

“How dare you think you know how I feel!”

“I know how hard you came,” he said. “I know you’ve been thinking about it, and you wonder what it would feel like to do it again.”

“Now, you’re the liar,” she said.

He reached behind him for the sack he’d tossed on his bed. Autumn prayed it wasn’t a belt, or something to use to tie her up. If that was the case, she would have to bolt. She wondered where she’d put her purse. She would need it to either book another room, or to find her way to Pueblo on her own. She tried to remind herself that he’d promised he wouldn’t touch her without her permission.

He reached into the sack and pulled out a vibrator, a brilliant red one.

“It’s not even in the original package,” she said.

“I took it out to put in the batteries.” He tossed it to her. “Use it.”

“In your dreams,” she said.

“You know you want to,” he said. “You want to know if the orgasm you get from this matches the one I gave you. There’s only one way to find out.”

“No, it couldn’t be the same,” she said. “Different stimulation produces different results.”

“Fine, don’t use it.” He put it on the table between the beds. “You admitted that different stimuli produce different results. The question is, which result do you like the best?”

“I’m not playing with myself in front of you,” she said.

“Fine, go into the bathroom,” he said.

“No.” She stared at the vibrator. “I’m not going to just cave to what you want. I’m not a sub, as you call them. You have plenty of ladies that come to your resort wanting the type of sex you offer. They will fulfill your needs quite nicely, I’m sure. You’ll never convince me.”

“So you say.” He picked up the vibrator, and he must have twisted the end because it started to buzz. Autumn wondered what it would feel like pressed against her clit, bringing all the blood in her body to that one spot, making her climax. Would it be like it had been the other evening? Something told her it wouldn’t, but she didn’t plan to find out, not in front of him, anyway.

She didn’t want to start down that path.

“We have other things to think about right now,” she said. “I appreciate your sharing the fact that it wasn’t wine and roses when you started out. That doesn’t mean I’m going to offer you my ass.”

He put the vibrator back on the table. “Just think about it,” he said. “You never know what might happen if you give it a chance.”