Finn tried to keep his entire body perfectly still. It was hard, since what he really wanted to do was run away screaming like a five-year-old girl. Instead, he froze as that fucking awful sound continued. That sound seemed like the only thing real in the whole world. Time seemed to slow, to grind to a halt. The very air felt frozen as he forced himself to breathe.

It sat perfectly coiled on the seat beside him. How had he missed that? How had he climbed in next to a fucking rattlesnake and not noticed? He’d been focused on Dani and Julian, wishing he didn’t have to play chauffeur. He’d wanted to be back there with them. He hadn’t noticed a thing until he looked down to turn on the radio, and then he’d heard that sound.

“Finn, I want you to stay completely still.” Julian’s voice was steady, a calm, quiet anchor reaching out to him.

“On it, Sir.” He forced himself to reply, pushing the words out of his mouth and past his clenched jaw. It reminded him that he wasn’t alone.

He stared at the snake, afraid to take his eyes off of it even for a second. God, he didn’t want that thing to stick its fangs into him. He wished he hadn’t parked under a damn light. It might have been easier if he couldn’t see the thing. It sat there with dead, primeval eyes. He remembered everything his grandfather ever told him about snakes. They were supposedly more scared of him than he was of them. Bullshit. He was really fucking scared, and that snake looked perfectly happy. Maybe not happy, but certainly content. It also looked ready. Its diamond-shaped head was standing up, taking in its prey. It was waiting for him to make one wrong move. Just one.

Julian’s voice broke through the tension. “Danielle, as carefully as you can, I want you to get out of the car. I want you to climb out, run back to the bar, and go find Jackson and Abigail Barnes.”

The back door creaked slightly as Julian pushed it open. Please. Please. He prayed the motion didn’t make the snake strike.

“I can’t leave Finn.” Dani sounded terrified.

He was willing to bet there were already tears running down her face. He had to stay calm for her. He had to keep it together for her sake, or she might do something foolish. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d tried to save his ass.

He remembered vividly the day when he’d sprained his ankle. They’d been out at the swamp about a mile from Dani’s house. They were ten, and he’d misjudged the sturdiness of the tree he’d been climbing. He fell at least twelve feet to the hard earth below. It was just before dark, and he’d been terrified of all the things that came out at night in the swamps of East Texas. Dani had carried him all the way home. She carried him through the mud and the dark. Her slender form had been strong enough, his weight no match for her will.

God, he loved her.

“Dani, you get out of here now. I mean it.” He couldn’t stand the thought of her being hurt. If he let her, she’d put herself between him and the snake. That was not happening.

The car shifted, but only slightly, as Dani turned to get out. Finn let his eyes shift to get a glimpse of her blonde hair as she got off Julian’s lap and slid out of the car. When her feet touched the ground, she stumbled slightly and reached out to stabilize herself.

“Danielle.” Julian’s voice was a warning.

She caught herself, but the car moved slightly. It was enough.

The snake struck. Pain lashed like lightning on and up Finn’s arm. It happened so fast. He only got a second’s sight of the snake’s fangs before the pain hit. The snake recoiled like a boxer going back to his corner. Finn had no intention of going another round. He cursed a blue streak and got the hell out of the car, tumbling to the ground. There was no delicate movement, just an insane need to get away. He hit the ground on his back, all the air rushing out of his chest.

“Go, now, Danielle,” Julian shouted.

No need for quiet now. The world seemed very loud to Finn. Car doors slammed. People started to shout. There was a flash of bright light as he looked up at the street lamp, and then he felt his peripheral vision fading. Everything got foggy. All he could see were the twin holes on his forearm, and a mixture of blood and a weird, almost urine-like substance oozing out. It seemed so small for it to hurt that much. He tried to lift his arm, but movement failed him.

“Stay calm.” Julian forced him to sit up. Julian pulled and prodded him until he was upright. “I’ve trapped the snake in the car. It won’t bite you again. You have to stay calm. We need to keep your heart rate down, and I can’t do that if you panic.”

“Been snake bit much?” Somehow he couldn’t see Julian as an outdoorsman. He groaned as his arm fell off his lap and hit the dirt of the parking lot. A strange almost metallic taste seemed to fill his mouth. Blood. He was biting his lip against the pain. He tried to force himself to relax.

“Not once, and I am grateful for that.” Julian got in behind him, lending strength as he buoyed him.

Fuck, his arm hurt, but worse, a part of it was starting to go numb. His whole body started to shake.

Julian’s arms came around him. “It’s going to be okay. Danielle will be back in a moment. Abigail is a nurse. She’ll know what to do, how to prep you for transport. We’ll get you to a hospital.”

Abby Barnes came running out of the bar. There was no mistaking her determination, even from Finn’s distance. The pretty woman who seemed so soft and carefree had a ferociously competent look on her face. Her husbands were running right after her, but only Dani was managing to keep up. She ran next to Abby. Her mascara trailing down her face, making rivers of black where she’d been crying.

Abby fell to her knees beside him and immediately took his arm in her small hands. She briskly waved Julian’s hands away, forcing Finn’s arm down. He winced at the pain as she examined him.

“Hey,” Julian began.

Abby cut him off. “I need to get the bite below his heart, Julian. Let me do my job. This isn’t my first rodeo. Sam, find something I can wrap Finn’s arm in. I need something flexible. And get some short boards for a splint. I need to compress the lymph nodes around the bite. Then I need you to get the truck started. We can get him to the hospital faster than an ambulance at this point.”

“What do you need from me, darlin’?” Jack asked, staring down, obviously willing to concede any and all control to his wife at this point.

“Jack, you get that damn snake. We need to know what kind it is.” Abby Barnes was in charge. She looked down at his arm. “Unless you know the species. That would be helpful.”

“Well,” he began, gritting his teeth through the pain, “it was a snake with rattles, so I think it’s safe to assume it was a rattlesnake.”

Abby was not amused. She frowned down at him. “What kind of rattler? There are ten kinds in the state of Texas. This is important.”

Dani was biting her lip as she looked down at him. “Please, Finn, they need to know what antivenin to give you.”

“I don’t know. It was whichever one had the biggest mouth and the evilest eyes. I didn’t ask it for its contact information.” Damn, Abby was poking and prodding. Every single touch hurt like hell, and now he was feeling nauseous. He didn’t want to throw up, but he wasn’t sure he could avoid it. Couldn’t she let him die in peace?

“It’s an eastern timber,” Jack stated plainly.

Bile rose like acid in Finn’s throat when he saw that the big cowboy had the damn thing in his hands. What the hell was he thinking? It twitched and rattled, and he held it like it was a kid’s toy.

Jack held the head between his thumb and forefinger, locking down the jaw. “Good size, too. Bet that hurt like hell, Finn. Don’t worry. We got an hour or two before it kills you. Last time I got bit, I managed to finish the fence I was working on before my hand went too numb. Baby, should I keep this one alive?”

Abby smiled up at him. “I think the hospital would appreciate it, Jack. They can always use antivenin.”

Dani took his gone-numb hand in hers. “It’s okay. I promise it’s going to be okay.”

He rested back against Julian’s chest and let himself give in to the darkness that overtook him.

 

* * * *

 

Julian’s footsteps echoed as he paced the empty halls of the ER, and the florescent light made everything slightly green. He wished the hospital was larger. It was almost a clinic. Would they give Finn the best care possible? He was surprised and a bit upset at the utter panic he’d felt at the thought of losing Finn. When he’d heard the snake rattle, he hadn’t been afraid for himself. He’d seen Finn and Dani being hurt, and it sent a shock through his system. He’d truly only known Finn for a day, but what they’d shared had affected him. He understood Finn on a fundamental level. He’d felt very much the same way as Finn, always on the outside looking in. He’d been there. It was an honor to begin to lead the man on the path that would make him whole.

It had even been an easy decision to allow Finn access to Danielle. In the end, he hadn’t been able to help himself. They wanted each other so much. Years of longing had been etched on their faces as they huddled together, waiting for his discipline. He’d been the one to give them that, to give them a way to finally be together. He’d watched the way Finn had taken her, desperately, as though he was starving and had been forever.

Julian had felt the same way as he watched them. He’d wanted to join them. The impulse had been almost overwhelming. He’d wanted to force Finn to turn Danielle over and offer that sweet ass up to him. He’d wanted to feel the slide of Finn’s hard cock against his as they took Danielle together. He’d wanted to be a part of them.

“Hey, I thought you could use this.” Jackson held out a Styrofoam cup of coffee.

He didn’t need coffee. He needed a fifth of Scotch. Simply standing around in a hospital was making him antsy. He took the proffered coffee anyway. It gave him something to do with his hands. “What is Finn’s status?”

It had already been an hour and he hadn’t heard anything yet. It rankled. He wasn’t in control. He’d started to argue, but Abigail had interceded and explained that the nurses wouldn’t be intimidated. Nurses would simply call security, and before he would be able to buy the hospital and fire them all, Finn would either be well or dead, and Julian would have wasted his time. He believed her. For the first time in a long time, he’d been forced to back down. The doctors had been insistent on only one of them staying with Finn while he received treatment. Danielle’s hand hadn’t left Finn’s free one all during the long night. He hadn’t been able to force Danielle from his side. The fact that he was on the outside gnawed at his gut.

Jackson slapped him on the back. “Don’t worry about it. Abby talked to the doctors. She says he’s going to be fine. We got him here in plenty of time. He’ll be sore tomorrow, and they’ll more than likely keep him overnight, but he’s not even going to need surgery.”

His stomach turned. “Surgery?”

Jackson waved it off. “It’s nothing to worry about. Sometimes the bite kills enough of the skin that the docs have to take it off, but Finn was lucky. He didn’t get much of a dose of venom.”

“Why the hell was there a snake in the car?” He hated the way his voice rose, but something was building inside him, something nasty and dark.

“Finn had a backpack on the floorboard of his car. He told the doc he’d had it with him out at Dani’s earlier today. He set it down on the ground while he waited for her. I guess the damn thing crawled in. Sometime later, it slithered out and decided the front seat would make a nice place to nest. It’s a bit unusual, but that’s the only explanation I can come up with. He’s going to be fine. There’s nothing to worry about at this point. Why don’t you sit down? Or I could have Sam drive you back to the ranch.”

“I’m not going back to the fucking ranch. And I don’t need to sit down,” he said, a low growl in his throat.

A startled look flashed across Jackson’s face before he nodded and took a step back. “All right, you need to be alone. I understand that. I’ll take care of the paperwork. You relax. I’ll come and get you if anything changes.”

He checked himself as Jackson walked away. It wasn’t Jackson’s fault he felt so helpless. He sat down briefly, but stood again, the urge to pace overwhelming. Oh, how he hated hospitals.

Jackson could have no idea what being in a hospital did to him. He couldn’t know that it made him feel like he was a child again. His hands clenched at the feeling. The smell of antiseptic and the chaos going on all around him brought him right back to the worst night of his life. Though he now wore ridiculously expensive loafers, he could still feel the cold linoleum under his bare feet as he went looking for his mother.

Memory tugged at his consciousness, pulling him along, though it wasn’t a place he wanted to go to. He’d been so young. Only a child. He’d fallen asleep as his father drove them home. The insistent thud of the car rolling along had lulled him into peace. The wicked roar of the SUV tearing into the Benz had been the sound to awaken him. He didn’t remember the accident, only the red and blue lights, and flashes of big hands pulling him out of the wreckage. It was mostly a jumble from there. He’d ridden in an ambulance, but not the one that had taken his parents. The fear of being alone and vulnerable was still stark in his mind, but the feel of that cold, slick floor under his feet was the physical sensation that haunted him. After the nurse had checked him out, he’d been left alone when another emergency called her attention away. He’d needed his mother. He’d walked through the loud ER, tears rolling down his cheeks, calling out for her. He’d just wanted to see his mother.

He’d wandered through the maze of identical rooms, with pained strangers in each, until he’d pulled back the right curtain, and he’d found her. She lay on a bed much like the one the nurse had put the six-year-old Julian on. Her dark hair lay on the pillow like it did on the mornings when he would bound into his parents’ room and bounce on the bed until they laughed and tickled him senseless. He had sighed his relief and touched her hand.

Cold. Why was she so cold? He remembered rubbing her hands in between his, trying to get her warm.

They’d found him there, his arms wrapped around his mother’s neck. It had been hours and hours before Child Protective Services took him away. Longer before his uncle had finally come to claim him.

“Julian?”

He was startled out of his memory by Danielle’s soft voice. She looked tired, her face scrubbed clean and hair pulled back. There was a gaunt look in her eyes that was quickly replaced with compassion as she looked him over. She didn’t say anything, merely walked into his arms and wrapped herself around him. The feel of her, the smell of her, overtook him, and Julian needed. He needed so badly. He twisted his hands in her hair and pulled her head back. He took her mouth with not an ounce of finesse. He shoved his tongue in, needing so badly to dominate her. More than his need to dominate, he needed her to submit. He needed her trust.

She softened against him. Her mouth opened, and her tongue slid in velvety softness against his own. Her nipples were suddenly hard nubs against his chest, and she wiggled against him as though attempting to lose herself, to merge with him.

He couldn’t wait. He dragged his head from hers and glanced around. The hour was late, and even in a busy hospital, the halls were fairly empty at three in the morning. He needed someplace private. Bathroom. Julian saw the sign not ten feet away. He dragged Danielle with him, a savage need roiling in his cock, in his chest. He slammed the door open, shoved her in, and locked it. It was a single bathroom, luckily recently cleaned, but it wouldn’t have mattered. He would have taken her anyway.

“Pants off, Danielle. Present yourself to me.” The words came out harsh, harsher than he’d intended, but she simply obeyed.

Her face was flushed, as though she needed this every bit as badly as he did. She made quick work of her clothes, shoving the jeans off her hips, dragging the panties with them. Her pretty pussy came into view, and Julian’s cock responded, engorging with blood, need. She tossed her shirt and the bra he’d made her wear off. She gave him the sweetest smile before turning and placing her hands on the sink, spreading her legs and flattening her back. His mouth watered at the sight of her curvy ass in the air, waiting for him. She was spread for him, trusting him. He wanted even more.

“Poor thing,” he said, allowing his hand to trace the seam of her ass down to the plug he’d forgotten about. She’d worn it for hours without complaint. “You should have mentioned this. I would have taken it out.”

“I’m used to it now, Sir. I pretended it was you. I pretended it was your cock. You were with me.”

“Always, Danielle.” The words were foreign but felt so right.

He shoved his pants down, freeing his cock. Without another thought, he lined his cock up to her soft pussy and shoved his way in. He loved looking at her in the mirror. The way her mouth came open and her eyes widened as she took his cock made him feel victorious. All the worry and stress faded away as he stroked into her. He let his hands wander up to find her swaying breasts. He stroked into her, forcing himself in an inch at a time as he toyed with her nipples, pinching and rubbing. She pushed back against him, taking him all the way to his balls. He twisted her nipples savagely. She moaned but held herself still.

“No, Danielle. I’m in charge. You keep your head up. Look at your Master in the mirror. Give me your orgasm.”

Her head came up. Her brilliant blue eyes met his in the mirror. She was open, open to the sex, open to the experience, open to him.

He gripped her waist and slammed in all the way to his balls. Danielle groaned, and her slick muscles pulsed around him. She was so tight. The plug felt good and hard, bearing down on his cock. He imagined it was Finn there. Like Danielle had said, with them, always.

Julian gave up. He gave in. He pounded his cock into her, his finger trailing down to find her clit. He watched Danielle’s beautiful face in the mirror as he slid over her engorged clitoris. He fucked in and out of her, the delicious feeling invading his bones. He felt the start of his orgasm as a tingle up and down his spine. His balls felt heavy and tight. He pinched down on her clit and felt Danielle clamp down as she came. Her face flushed furiously as she contorted in the sweetest agony imaginable. Julian couldn’t wait. He joined her, spurting the orgasm in jets out of his body. He slammed in and held himself tight against her, gritting his teeth against the sensation of coming deep inside Danielle without anything between them.

Dear God, he’d taken her without a condom. The revelation sped through him, but all he could do was pull her up, sliding his hands to cup her breasts. He couldn’t work up the will to see it as a bad thing. She was his. She was supposed to take everything he had to give her. She was supposed to be filled with him.

She slumped back against him, obviously exhausted. He picked up his slave, because he couldn’t think of her as anything less now.

“It’s all right, little one,” he whispered. All the bad thoughts seemed to have burned away. He was left with nothing but affection for the woman in his arms.

“He’s going to be okay?”

“I’ll make sure of it.” Julian made the promise. Danielle rested her head against his chest.

They would all be okay. He would make very, very sure of it.