CHAPTER EIGHT
Roosters, Chicks and Feathers
She’s the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success—wrong by wrong.
Highway 70 headed to Victoria, Texas
It took Brea a while to get used to the gears in the big truck. She knew she was pissing drivers off, because they kept honking at her and passing her by. Better to be noticed than ignored, right? Well, maybe not in this case. It’d been difficult enough to even steer this monster of a vehicle, let alone drive it fast.
She was now looking for a small sign-post somewhere just before the town of Victoria. Squinting and desperately trying to see the side of the road, she slowed the truck down. She spotted a sign painted in red of all colors.
Plush Ranch
There it is! She turned onto the road, amazed that it was paved too. How did her mama afford that? Most of these ranches had dirt roads. Why even the Triple K had mostly dirt until you got right up to the main house.
After about a half a mile, she had to slow down. It looked like there was something going on ahead. She pulled over and turned the truck off. What she saw didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
There were three men. One was working on the ground and the other two were on ladders. All three were working on an archway over the road and all three were shirtless. They were well muscled and even looked as if they’d been oiled up like they did on guys in a photo shoot.
This all may have sounded innocent, except for the row of lawn chairs on each side of the road. Women in various states of dress were reclining in those chairs. About a dozen women. Some wore bikinis, some just shorts. Most were older and a few looked to be in their thirties maybe. They all had drinks in their hands while doing catcall whistling and making jokes.
“Take your jeans off!” A blonde woman yelled.
Another woman whistled loudly and all of them clapped. “Let’s see them tools…baby!”
What the hell was going on? Brea gazed back up at the guys on ladders. They were buff looking men and the kind that made your mouth water too. Did construction guys usually look this sexy while swinging a hammer? Her wide eyes swung over to the one guy that was on the ground. She wasn’t sure that she was seeing reality as she took it all in.
He turned around and was smiling at the women in the row of lawn chairs. His tool belt hung low on his jeans. He looked like a model; tall and well built, his pecs shining in the sun. He skillfully twirled his hammer and shoved it down into his tool belt.
What Brea saw next defied every natural human law in her mind.
With sexy skill, he sashayed over to the chairs as if he were dancing to music that wasn’t really playing except in his own mind.
Wondering how a man could sashay, Brea shook her head as if to clear her befuddled vision.
Mister Sexy Tool Man reached down, unhooking his belt.
The women went wild. They were yelling, take it off, take it off!
Then, he dropped the tool belt to the ground and all hell broke loose, as some of the girls stood up outta their chairs and whooped like crazy.
With a determined sexy slowness, he lowered his fingers to his jean buttons.
“Yeah, baby!” A redheaded woman shouted exuberantly. “Show us your hammer, sugar meat!”
In absolute shock, Brea just stood next to the truck. This whole thing was so bizarre and she wondered if she’d found an outdoor Chippendales club or something out here in the middle of nowhere. Men stripping and all these women acting like men do when seeing pole dancers at a strip joint?
The sexy worker unbuttoned his jeans.
Oh Lordy! Brea shivered with a little unwanted anticipation. I wonder if one of those women is gonna actually—
Sure enough, the woman he was standing in front of slipped what looked like a fifty bill, down into his jeans. Then, she seemed to shout as she must’ve grabbed ahold of his…tool. Gasping loudly, she let go and sat back in her lawn chair.
Tool man rolled his jeans lower and reached down as if he were actually gonna lift out his…hammer.
The women all seemed to go quiet while staring at his crotch area as though they were in a stricken state of awe. The seemingly tense lust-filled silence that fell all around was full of the same kind of anxious feeling of when you were waiting for the axe to fall or something. Brea almost snickered as she thought that these women were waiting for blue jeans to fall and wanted some other kind of tool besides an axe!
Motioning his head to the guys on the ladders, he gave the transfixed girls a sly looking smile.
Simultaneously, Brea and the rest of the women swung their entranced gazes up.
The other two guys were unbuttoning their jeans too.
Raising a shaky hand to her mouth, she couldn’t help that a bit of drool had slipped from her lip. The lust in the air would have affected anyone. Three sexy god like men were about to strip bare out here in the hot Texas sun! You’d have to inhuman or very old to not be affected. Why, these men could make the deadest, driest pussy rise and gush from a frigid grave! They were all like gloriously trained sex magnets; it was like the very air was electrically charged with fuck-me Pheromones. What was going on here?
Before she knew it, all three men lowered their jeans as though they’d choreographed this wanton routine before. They were all very well-endowed, and from the erect…hammers, standing rigid and throbbing in the sunlight, this all seemed to turn them on too.
The women were shouting again, and some rushed from their chairs up along the ladders. All the combined female shouting and the wild laughter became almost deafening.
Brea realized suddenly about how even the most well mannered genteel woman could and would lose control if they were manipulated in just the right way. Hell, these men could have a woman on her knees, ready to—
A gunshot rang out and she nearly leapt out of her skin.
All motion stopped as most of the women were frozen in mid-frenzy with their mouths gaping.
Looking all around, Brea tried to see where the shot had come from.
There in the road, just beyond the arch…stood her mother. Dressed in all her finery too. All decked out in purple leather, along with a lace boustierre, uplifting her already ample breasts. “That’s enough!” Daisy Plush shouted. “You’re gonna topple those men down.”
The women near the ladders backed away.
“Okay, here’s the deal and you Southern hussies know the drill.” Daisy lowered her shotgun. “Fernando…” She nodded toward the guy on the ground. “…Brad and Kevin,” she snickered. “They gotta make a living too.” She chuckled.
Brea stood frozen. That chuckle always meant something wicked was definitely afoot.
“In a half hour, up at the house. The auction will be commencing’. You want some beef?”
The women all hollered and whistled in unison.
“Well, then, wait for the menu and prices before you order your steak!” Daisy laughed and watched as all the women folded up their chairs, gathered their drinks and hats, then made their way up the road.
What the hell was her Mama doing? Brea watched everyone leave.
“Baby doll!” her mother shouted and rushed over to the truck.
Staring at the receding group as though she’d imagined the entire scene, Brea was still shocked. “Hello, Mama.”
Daisy was wearing leather…purple leather and even being an older curvy woman, she looked amazing. She swooped Brea up into a huge crinkling leather covered hug. “I didn’t know you was comin’!”
She hugged her back with a distracted pat to the slick leather along her mom’s back and then stepped away from her. “What’s going on here, Mama?”
Daisy Plush grinned at her.
“I mean what kinda—what…? Those men and the wild women—what the fuck?” She was stupefied and stuttering.
Tossing her head back, Daisy let out a loud chortle.
Brea felt a little angry at her reaction. “With the half-naked guys and these wild women? What are ya doing?”
Daisy swiped a tear of hilarity from her cheek. “Just a little ole bit a fun is all. Fun and money.”
“Okay, so you’re not gonna tell me the truth, are ya?”
Daisy Plush grabbed her arm and pointed up at the ladder where one of the hot-bodied men stood just a minute ago. “I was staging the grand opening.”
Gazing up, Brea finally noticed a scrolled sign at the top of the arch.
The Plush Rooster Ranch
Oh—My—God! She even jumped back a little with the stunning but somewhat confusing revelation and swung her stunned eyes over to her mom.
In lavender spike heeled boots, Daisy strolled up the road ahead of her, her leather scrunching with the sway of her plentiful hips. “Just leave the truck here, sweetie. I’ll have one of my…studs retrieve it.”
*~*~*~*
Somewhere on the Triple K Ranch
The man knelt down and that handsome face was a mere few inches away. “Can you stand?”
Kanda blinked her eyes at the sound of his voice. He had a foreign accent, like British sounding or something, to his words. She’d had the wind knocked out of her all right, but this man knocked the sense from her now.
Looking concerned at her continued silence, he then scooped his arms underneath her.
She wanted to shout that she wasn’t some ninny that couldn’t do for herself, but no words came out of her mouth.
His smile grew as he stood upright with absolute ease, even while holding her weight.
She studied his face closely, as he stood there for a long moment.
He never even seemed to wince with the bulk of her lax body in his arms. “Can you speak?” he asked as she stared at him.
She shook her head slightly. I could, but I might just be dreaming or hallucinating anyway, so I will keep my big mouth shut until I know for sure.
“Okay, well. I guess I should take you back to camp. The hospital is fifty miles away.”
Camp? He has a camp nearby? How dare he camp on my land! Before she could ask him what the hell he thought he was doing, he swung her around and walked around the Humvee.
Gasping at the powerful swing of his bulky body, she wrapped her arms around his neck. She put her face against the curve of his shoulder. He smelled so delicious. Maybe, it would be a good idea to find out what he was up to and why he was here, before I tell him who I am?
Placing her into the leather seat, he smiled again. “I will tether your horse to the bumper and drive real slow. Don’t be worried about your stag there, all right?”
Stag? Kanda wondered at the odd term for her horse.
After a couple of minutes, he hopped in through the driver’s side and shut the door. “That was a real knacker you took.” He put the Hummer into drive and the vehicle lurched forward. “Don’t ya worry nun, I’ll go slow while your animal follows.”
He was Australian! Was all Kanda could think while he talked.
He was quiet while he drove.
She began to feel real pain from her tailbone while it coursed up her spine. She let out a misery-filled moan.
His concerned gaze swung over to her. “You hurtin’?”
Kanda swallowed heavily and nodded.
Reaching over, he flicked a button on the dash panel. A small platform rose up in the middle, between the seats and two shot glasses sat on either side of a bottle. He raised his knee up and held the steering wheel in place. “Too bad it doesn’t have a button to pour the damn stuff.” He chuckled.
Her gaze shot up at the sound of his laugh; she’d never heard anything quite like it. It made her feel a strange tingling all over. She shook her head. No it’s the fall. I’m just not feeling right, is all.
With his knee up against the steering wheel, he adeptly drove while he poured her a shot. Silent but smiling, he handed her the glass.
Normally, she would have turned down a strange man offering liquor, but her body hurt something fierce and she gulped the shot down. Her hand shot out with the glass toward him, before she knew what she was doing.
He let out a low chortle and promptly refilled it, handing it back to her.
Kanda repeated the downing and the burn in her throat almost blotted out the pain in her tailbone.
Grabbing the glass, he tucked it back into the holder, then took ahold of the wheel again.
Her fuzzy gaze took in the fact that he was navigating down toward the river area. It was a nice cool spot with grass and many trees, where she herself used to visit when she was younger and had less responsibilities. Her eyes widened as she saw a log cabin. What in the hell? How could that be here on her property and she never even knew it!
Who was this man?
He slowed the Hummer down and parked it. “Now, just wait here, till I come back.” He hopped out and disappeared.
Kanda’s thoughts whirled. Here was this good-looking foreigner, running loose on her lands and doing what he pleased? When she felt better, there would be hell to pay!
He opened the side door and scooped her up from the seat, making his way to the cabin.
Kanda still hadn’t said a word, but her mind was screaming at him. She was going to stay quiet, but the closer they got to the structure illegally built on her acreage, the madder she got.
Carefully, he set her down on a big brass bed and rushed around the room, seeming to look for something.
Watching him through hazy eyes, she tried to form in her mind the cussing she was going to give to him.
“Ah-ha!” he yelled.
Kanda jumped with a start.
Rushing over like he had to put out a fire, he placed a first aid kit on the bed, flipping it open and without pausing, he began rifling through it. He took up some gauze and looked at her with a sudden puzzled expression. “Wait a minute, you aren’t bleedin’ and you don’t seem to have a bump…” He dropped the gauze and took her face with a grasping of his large hands. He gazed deeply into her eyes while running his fingers over her head and through her hair.
Kanda was a frozen doll in his hands. They felt warm and rough at the same time as he caressed her skin and scalp. Her body went limp and her mind wandered. What was it I was gonna ask him? She mused. Her vision focused on those hot, blue eyes.
He smiled.
Her skin flushed at the grin. Oh, my lord, what is happening to me?
“Well, where does it hurt?” he asked.
Her gaze was still locked onto his face. “Huh?”
“Let me see,” he paused as if he were thinking. “You landed on your…” His voice faded as he looked more closely at her eyes. He then lay her down on the bed.
Her body suddenly felt hot all over at his actions.
With a smooth transition, he rolled her over onto her stomach.
Meanwhile, Kanda felt as if she were now a Raggedy Ann doll and she allowed him to position her at will.
Reaching under her with his hands, he felt around at her belly.
“Oh!” A stunned response came from her mouth at the feel of his hot hands on her skin.
Next, he unsnapped her jeans and the pop from it sounded like a gunshot ringing in her ears. Still, she seemed helpless and made no move to stop him from whatever it was he had in mind.
Without a pause, he tugged her jeans down and pulled them all the way off. “Oh, Dammit!” he swore aloud.
Kanda was at a loss for any movement and she barely registered what he said.
“This is gonna hurt ya bad in the morning, Miss,” he stated with sympathy in his voice as he moved away from the bed. “That is gonna bruise your lovely skin for sure.”
Kanda was almost bereft at the loss of his touch and she wondered if she were drunk after all. It wasn’t like her to just lie still and not speak or try to get to the heart of a situation. Lovely skin? Maybe she was hurt worse than she thought by the fall?
His hands returned and they were smoothing up and down over her plump ass cheeks.
Letting out a heavy sigh, she gloried in the feel of his massaging.
“This salve should help some, although it’ll still hurt like a bully when you wake up tomorrow.”
Kanda didn’t reply or move as she sighed again. The warmth seeping into her skin made her sore derriere feel better instantly. Then, his touch went away. “No. More, please?” she muttered before she could even think.
The movement on the bed stilled and she heard that chuckling again. “Okay, you’re the boss.” He then applied his hands again, and they roamed all up and down her cheeks through her underwear and down to the backs of her thighs. “I love a real woman whose skin feels like yours does,” he commented in a low voice.
Kanda’s entire body gave a shiver at his voice and her eyes popped wide open.
“Well, we’ll move you up and you’ll have to stay on yer belly for a while.” Hands came at her waist and sure enough, her body was tugged up to the head of the bed. It was all done in a matter of seconds.
He had to be some kind of strong man to just mover her around with ease like this. She wasn’t small or light, but in his hands she felt like she was.
“I’d love to give you a pain killer, but you already had too much whiskey, and we don’t want you lit like a Molotov cocktail, so try to get some rest, okay?”
Kanda just sighed again as a response, and she knew she was smiling from ear to ear, but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why that was. Her eyes drooped close and the room seemed to go dark on her.
*~*~*~*
Twelve miles out of Victoria, Texas
Brea stood for a minute more in the road. “Studs? One of her studs?” Her mom had studs who worked for her? Shaking her head, she followed her leather wearing Mama up the paved road. It was lined with white and yellow daisies all the way up to the house.
The house itself was huge, built like a Victorian, but with fresh paint and it had the largest front veranda Brea had ever seen. Three swinging benches, about 10 rocking chairs and a few wicker high-backs were all positioned for comfort.
She made her way up the wide front row of steps and stopped to look around. Hanging flowerpots were everywhere and little tables with flower arrangements sat by some of the chairs. All of this must have cost a bundle!
A sign hung over the entrance:
We only serve up two kinds of men here: Domestic and Imported.
Brea thought she may have to sit in one the comfy chairs just to let the shock sink in. Her mom was a Madame? Not only that, she had a stable full of male—
“Are ya coming, doll?” Daisy shouted from the open doorway.
“I don’t know, Ma.”
Daisy shook her head and walked over to where she stood. “You don’t know about what?”
Brea scoffed.” You—You’re—?”
Daisy laughed. “Yes?”
“You’re running a brothel!”
Her mother’s smile faded. “Now, baby girl, there ain’t no reason to be nasty about this.”
“Me—being nasty?” Brea was shaking all over. “I just can’t believe this!”
Her mother tilted her head. “Look, daughter. In this life we all gotta do what calls to us. We all should answer to our best skills.”
Brea’s eyes rounded. “And this…?” She motioned all around. “This is your calling?”
Her mother slowly nodded her head “Look, sugar. I know sex. I know what women and men want. They all just don’t know where to get it, or how to get it.”
Puzzled, Brea took a step back.
“Like, for instance…” her mother continued. “Why are you here?”
Brea was flustered by the question “Um—I—?”
“You probably found a man and you don’t know how to proceed, right?”
Brea found herself nodding her head.
“And who did ya come to?”
Brea glanced away. “That’s different.”
“Why? Why is it different?”
“Cuz, you’re my Mama!” Brea almost shouted. “You’re supposed to give me help and advice. I’m not a stranger—someone who just needs…” She gazed nervously around. “A paid for fuck.”
Daisy looked stunned for about a second. “Well, now. Seems to me, love and fucking come hand in hand…sometimes.” She broke out into a grin.
Brea sucked her breath in as if her mother had thrown a horrible insult at her.
“Look here, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings. But what I mean is… We all pay for the fucks. Sooner or later.”
“What?”
“You heard me.” Her mother looked stern. “Now, even though I’m in the business of someone or another disrobing? I don’t air my dirty laundry in public.” She took a hold of Brea’s arm. “I got a proceeding going on and I got to be there to settle all the wild chaos down. Then, we’ll settle you in and have a sit down talk. So, come on in.”
Brea allowed herself to be tugged inside.