Sinful Pleasures Read online

  Dallas and Morgan were the bad boys of Station Three. It didn’t escape Jude they were first out for calls, worked hardest at their drills, and flirted more outrageously than any of the other men. Even with her iron-clad personal commitment to remain aloof from her clients, Jude couldn’t help but respond when they visited her store.

  She felt a thrill of delight when Dallas threw a wave in her direction. He must have noticed her watching through the windows. She tossed him a wave back, glad he wasn’t close enough to see the stain of color on her cheeks for getting caught staring at him.

  “That’s it,” Jude said. “We’ve been caught drooling, and now I have to get to work.”

  She was anxious to see the shipment that arrived too late to unpack the night before.

  With a delivery of new merchandise in the store, Jude knew the potential for sales would be high over the weekend. The latest toys and videos guaranteed the regulars would stop by to see what she purchased for the shop. When Jude stocked a fresh delivery, she set a white geranium in her front window. For those who frequented Sinful Pleasures, the white geranium alerted the local clientele that new items were on the shelves. It worked better for her than taking out an advertisement in the local newspaper.

  “Did you want something in particular, Trace, or did you just come by to hassle me about what I’m going to wear?”

  Tracey took one last look out the window and then turned back from the temptation. “I know you, sis. Tomorrow we’ll be scrambling to find you something to wear. That’s not going to happen this time. I’ll pick you up after closing and we’ll get a bite to eat, then go shopping. Be ready.” She set the empty coffee cup down on the counter for Jude to pick up. “Gotta run, see you tonight.”

  “Yeah, see you tonight,” Jude answered, but her sister was already out the door.

  Draining the last delicious sip of coffee from her cup, Jude armed herself with a box cutter and turned on the store’s surveillance camera. Picking up the plain cardboard box, she headed upstairs to stock the shelves. Wearing her favorite low rise jeans and softest T-shirt, Jude felt like rearranging a few displays. She hated to work in stiff, unyielding clothing. Jude always felt like a mannequin when she dressed in suits for the Chamber of Commerce assemblies. She made it a point to wear business clothing for bank meetings when she needed to ask for a higher loan of credit. She supposed she could dress casually for any function in town, but she wanted the community to know she meant business, despite the fact her livelihood was an adult toy store.

  Using a box cutter to slice through the large carton, Jude picked up the first item wrapped in thick bubble wrap. Personal pleasure device, she thought, guessing from the weight of it in her hand. Peeling back the protective wrapping to see the merchandise, she immediately thought of Dallas Preston.

  Jude held a butt plug adorned with a sassy black ponytail. In her mind, she could hear Dallas’s deep voice asking, “How’s my little filly?” That seemed to be one of his favorite terms of endearment nearly every time he saw her.

  Jude’s fingers traced the clear plastic packaging holding the toy. Across the top read the catchphrase—Fill your filly to the limits of her pleasure. On the lower left-hand side of the package was a shapely woman’s bottom. The playful swatch of mane was depicted to be swishing back and forth over her hips like a horse’s tail.

  Jude couldn’t contain a smile. No doubt about it, Dallas would love this toy. He was partial to the Western room. Not surprisingly, he always wore boots, faded jeans, and a hat during his off time from the fire station.

  She couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to wear the plug for him and watch his reaction.

  * * * *

  An electronic chime indicated the front door of Sinful Pleasures had been opened from the street. Jude quickly finished hanging the last item from the box, shooting a look up at the corner monitor. Her stomach did a fluttery little dance that made her shiver. Dallas and Morgan had arrived. They must have noticed the UPS truck stop in the alley last night.

  Giving another thoughtful glance at the tail, Jude turned away from the display to greet the men. Even though she owned the store, she seldom played with the toys and never had anal sex. In fact, as the proprietor of an adult toy store, she realized she hadn’t seen much action at all.

  Jude knew her decision to open Sinful Pleasures was, in part, a slap to the face of her stuffy ex-husband. In his mind, sex was something people had behind closed doors, and then only with the lights off.

  Logically, Jude knew her husband’s sexual hang-ups had nothing to do with her. They were the result of being raised by Genevieve Wheeler. Genevieve was a hard woman, strict and unloving. She ruled her son, Steven, with an iron fist and sharp tongue. She wanted nothing but success for her offspring.

  Genevieve certainly didn’t care about his happiness. Steven’s pleasure didn’t matter to her nearly as much as his social standing and success. She taught him that sex was a distraction, little more than a vulgar, messy affair better suited to the lower dregs of society. For intellectuals such as the Wheelers, sex served as a means for procreation, certainly not for mindless enjoyment. The problem, Jude thought, was that somewhere over the years Steven began to believe her.

  For a short time after their wedding, Steven’s cold demeanor thawed slightly. Jude hoped her love could change him and make him whole. She actually thought he might overcome Genevieve’s preaching. In the end, however, he couldn’t rise above his mother’s influence.

  As their marriage slowly disintegrated, Jude thought she had never felt so alone in her life. How odd, she realized, to sleep beside her husband yet feel as if she were the only person alive in the world. Being lonely with a mate by her side, she decided, was a thousand times worse than being alone.

  Steven rarely told her that he loved her. If anything, he treated her with polite indifference, keeping himself emotionally distant. Deep within herself, Jude wondered why she couldn’t reach him. What kept him from responding to her physically? On her bleakest days, she wondered if the problem had been her instead of his upbringing, after all.

  “Jude?”

  “Up here guys,” she called. The tread of heavy boots echoed loudly in the miniscule stairway, causing a flutter in her chest. Licking her dry lips, Jude admitted to herself that Dallas Preston and Morgan Kent invoked lustful feelings in her that Steven Wheeler never stirred.

  “There’s my little filly.” Dallas’s hundred-watt grin released a flood of butterflies in Jude’s stomach at seeing him in the doorway with Morgan looking over his shoulder.

  “Hi.” It came out a breathless whisper, causing both men to study her curiously. Jude’s face burned when she felt her nipples harden under the thin T-shirt.

  “We’re glad to see you, too,” Morgan said, not even pretending to hide his smirk. His eyes focused on her breasts, and Jude felt her pussy clench with a jolt of craving for him. What was it with these two men? She couldn’t stop her body from reacting to them whenever they were in the vicinity.

  “Playing with the toys?” Dallas looked at the empty box with its packing strewn across the floor.

  “A shipment came in last night. I’ve been stocking for the weekend crowd.” Jude began to gather up the brown paper with trembling hands. She crumpled it into the box along with the box cutter and other bits and pieces of packing debris left on the floor.

  “Whoa, what are you so jumpy for?” Morgan asked. He took the box out of Jude’s hand and set it aside. When he looked at her again, his eyes crinkled invitingly at the corners. “You were having naughty thoughts about the toys, weren’t you?”

  Jude shook her head but couldn’t find enough voice to answer him. Damn. They had her number. She would never hear the end of this.

  “I want to have everything put away so Julie only has to take care of the customers tomorrow. We’re still going to the ball, aren’t we?”

  Dallas ignored her question, giving her a thoughtful look. He glanced over at Morgan. “What
sort of toy would turn Jude on? What do you think, Morgan?” Dallas lifted up the pony paddle, arching one eyebrow. “Do you think she wants a man to spank her with this cute little paddle?”

  Morgan stared at her for a long moment, and Jude felt her breath catch. Would he say yes? She wondered what was going through his mind. Did he see her naked over his knees with his hand on the paddle, spanking her ass till it glowed hot pink?

  He shook his head, never taking his gaze from her. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Me, either,” Dallas said, hanging the paddle back on the wall. He took a pair of light nipple clamps down from the shelf. “These look a little painful, but they’re well padded. Do you think she wants her nipples pinched while she’s getting fucked?”

  Jude’s heart was beating in triple time. She swallowed dryly, trying to hide her nervousness. Feeling lightheaded, Jude thought she might faint. She knew she should stop the conversation before it went any further. Like a deer in the headlights, she couldn’t think fast enough to save herself from the certain proposition heading her way.

  “No, not those, either.”

  “Hmm.” Dallas pretended to look over the wall with intense concentration. “Not the horse-hung dildo, not the spurs…wait, what’s this?” He took the butt plug down from the hanger, checking out the glossy little tail. He whistled in appreciation. “I bet that’s soft.” He held out the package for Morgan to see. “Don’t you think our little filly would look cute wearing that?”

  Morgan’s eyes darkened, becoming nearly feral in their intensity. “Yeah, I do. Real good.” His voice had taken on a decidedly husky quality. “How about it, baby? Have you ever worn a butt plug?”

  “No.” Jude shook her head to emphasize the no. “I don’t play with the merchandise.” At least not enough to count, she told herself and decided it wasn’t really a lie. She hadn’t got adventurous because she was waiting for the right man, or men, to come along and play with her.

  The two men looked at one another in disbelief, or maybe it was disappointment.

  “There’s a fantasy shot to hell,” Dallas said. “We lie in the station at night and wonder what you do over here by yourself when you work late. I won’t tell you some of the things we think of.”

  “I hate to disillusion you boys.” Jude felt herself gaining a measure of control. Her voice sounded much stronger than she felt, considering her panties were a little on the damp side and her pussy still throbbed from her desire for the men. “I have work to do. Is there something I can help you find?”

  “We came in to buy a wedding gift for a friend, but I can’t get you off my mind wearing this little number.” Dallas held up the plug, shaking it back and forth.

  “Sorry, you’re going to have to find another filly. Unless, of course, you want to purchase that for your friend.”

  “No way,” Dallas said. “I got something special in mind for this. Show us some hot lingerie. That’s what we had in mind for the wedding gift.”

  Jude led them into the next room. She had the feeling both of them were concentrating on her ass as she walked ahead of them.

  “Were you telling the truth?” Morgan asked, confirming Jude’s suspicions.

  “About what?”

  “Not ever wearing a butt plug?”

  Jude stopped walking. She turned to give Morgan direct eye contact.

  “No, I’ve never worn a plug, and I’ve never had anal sex, not that it’s any of your business. I’m basically just your vanilla type of girl that runs a naughty toy store to make a living and piss off an ex-husband. And speaking of making a living,” she reminded them pointedly, “I can’t make money if you aren’t here to buy.”

  “Yeah, but we’re two of your best customers,” Dallas spoke up, “so you have to give us special treatment.

  “I always do, don’t I?” Jude focused on him with amusement. “Do you think anyone else in town knows half as much about me as the two of you seem to find out?”

  “We appreciate that,” Dallas said. “And to answer your earlier question, darlin’, yes, of course, we’re going to the ball.” He looked around him at the variety of toys hanging on the wall. “Seems to me that Morgan and I need to educate you about the products you’re selling, but right now, we want something unique for Tom’s wedding. He’s so fucking crazy over this woman that we want to give him a week of heaven. She’s about your build. If we pick out something, would you model it for us? Just so we can get a feel for how it looks?”

  Jude rolled her eyes. “That is so obvious, guys. Can’t you do better than that?” Secretly she got a little thrill from thinking about being scantily dressed while the men looked at her.

  Morgan took out his wallet and peeled off three one-hundred-dollar bills. “We really want Tom to have a perfect honeymoon. It’s hard for guys like us to pick out outfits without seeing them on.”

  Jude looked at the bills he placed on the dresser. She could use the money to help pay for the new shipment. Not to mention the thrill of going along with their charade. It turned her on to think of them looking at her without being able to do a thing about it. She considered it a little payback for their earlier behavior in the toy room.

  “You can’t touch.” She looked back and forth between them. “Not to feel the fabric, not to find out if it’s stretchy. No touching at all.”

  Both men held up their hands, palms outward. “Promise.”

  Jude ignored the butterflies in her stomach. “Okay, pick out the outfits, and I’ll try them on.”

  Leaving the two men in comfortable chairs, Jude went into the dressing room with an armful of lingerie. The first outfit she tried on was a hot little rumba number. It had ruffled red panties and a barely-there black lace bra with playful red trim around the bottom. While not exactly a wicked ensemble, it flowed with artistic sexuality. The men’s choice surprised Jude. She imagined they would pick out something more in-your-face seductive.

  Turning her back to the mirror, she checked out her rear view and had to admit the outfit was sexy as hell. The flirty ruffles fluttered with every movement she made, accenting the curve of her hips and the length of her legs.

  Nice choice guys, she praised mentally, steeling herself to step out of the dressing room.

  “Fucking beautiful,” Dallas breathed. He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what he saw. “We’re definitely getting that one.”

  “Turn around.” Morgan spun his finger in the air in a twirling motion. “Baby, that outfit belongs to you. I can’t imagine any other woman looking half as good.”

  Jude felt herself blush at his compliment. She knew by the intensity of his eyes he meant what he said. He looked like he wanted to eat her up on the spot, just like the big bad wolf.

  “Try on the…”

  Before his next words could be spoken, the alarm bells blared at the fire station. Both men jumped up from the chairs without hesitation. “Wrap them up for us, Jude. We’ll be back after our shift,” Dallas called.

  Morgan hesitated at the door, calling back up the stairway. “We’ll take ’em all.”

  Jude looked at the pile of clothes with a smile curling her lips. The boys wouldn’t be getting much change back from the three hundred dollars they left on the edge of the antique dresser.

  Dallas and Morgan struck her as the kind of men who didn’t care how much they spent as long as they got what they wanted. Jude knew from the look in their eyes they both wanted her. The knowledge gave her a shiver of excitement, but at the same time, it made her nervous. She had talked to each of them about many subjects over the past year, but she still didn’t know them intimately enough to guess at the secrets they held behind those guarded faces. She hoped she’d get a chance to find out.

  Jude heard the ladder truck pull out of the station with its sirens blaring. She felt a momentary chill of apprehension. The realization of the danger the men faced daily made her think about a relationship beyond physical gratification. Could she handle such a relationship? Could she
face knowing that every time her man went on a call his life hung in the balance?

  In the distance, the siren still called out its wailing scream, and a chill crossed Jude’s heart.

  Please let them be safe, she thought.

  Let them be safe.

  Chapter Two

  Ladder Six stopped in front of a five-story apartment building on the south side of town. Morgan could see flames shooting out of a window on the fourth floor. He jammed his helmet on as he trotted toward the building, glancing behind him at the crowd gathering across the street. He could tell by the worried faces that most of the people watching the fire lived in the low-rent apartments. They were seeing everything they owned go up in flames.

  Ignore them, he told himself. You’ve got a job to do.

  Trying unsuccessfully to shut down his emotions, Morgan knew he’d be more effective holding his sympathy until they had the fire under control. He almost made it to the door when a frightened child burst out of the building, followed by a hysterical woman carrying a set of twin infants.

  Steeling himself not to react to her tear-streaked face, Morgan still thought the little girl’s round blue eyes had the most tragic expression he’d ever seen. She ran straight to him, tugging at the hem of his bunker coat.

  “Mr. Fireman?”

  Morgan squatted down to the child, pulling his helmet off so he wouldn’t frighten her. He’d learned long ago not to dismiss children when they had something urgent to say. Kids had an uncanny way of dealing with disaster better than adults.

  “What, honey?”

  “My brofer’s in dere. He went back for Timmy. Mommy couldn’t find him. We had to leave.” The child looked up at the woman who nodded frantically, sobbing nearly as hard as the two screaming infants she held in her thin arms.

  “Who’s Timmy?” Morgan asked, trying to keep his voice soft. A familiar ache started in his chest, threatening to choke him.