Dust and Desire

By Demelza Hart

When your best friend already gives you the pleasure you crave, can anyone better it? But tough lives call for tough decisions.

Chase Truman is a man under pressure. He's got a five thousand acre ranch to manage, he's lost Blue Ridge mountain, and he can't find himself a woman. But when he stumbles upon Riff Felton, the man who stole Blue Ridge from him, and finds himself held with a gun against his head, he doesn't resist. His relationship with Riff goes way back, and soon Chase and Riff are making up for lost time, soothing each other's pain in the way they love. But something's missing. Chase wants more and thinks he'll find it in the right lady. Luckily for him, a breakdown on the railroad is about to deliver Miss Adeline Monroe into his hands, a headstrong, wealthy young woman from Boston with a very modern attitude. But is there room for two in Chase's life?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
• Release date: Jun 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784300593

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A Totally Bound Publication

Dust and Desire

ISBN # 978-1-78430-059-3

©Copyright Demelza Hart 2014

Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright May 2014

Edited by Sue Meadows

Totally Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2014 by Totally Bound Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN

Warning:

This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Totally Burning and a Sexometer of 3.

DUST AND DESIRE

Demelza Hart

When your best friend already gives you the pleasure you crave, can anyone better it? But tough lives call for tough decisions.

Chase Truman is a man under pressure. He’s got a five thousand acre ranch to manage, he’s lost Blue Ridge mountain, and he can’t find himself a woman. But when he stumbles upon Riff Felton, the man who stole Blue Ridge from him, and finds himself held with a gun against his head, he doesn’t resist. His relationship with Riff goes way back, and soon Chase and Riff are making up for lost time, soothing each other’s pain in the way they love. But something’s missing. Chase wants more and thinks he’ll find it in the right lady. Luckily for him, a breakdown on the railroad is about to deliver Miss Adeline Monroe into his hands, a headstrong, wealthy young woman from Boston with a very modern attitude. But is there room for two in Chase’s life?

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

Colt .45: Colt’s Manufacturing Company

Smith & Wesson: Smith & Wesson

Chapter One

West Texas, 1906

The setting sun turned the distant hills a burnished russet as Chase Truman set off on his dusk ride to scout the perimeter of Redhorn Ranch. After the wrangles and rows he’d put up with earlier, he felt himself settling as he looked over the unchanging vastness of his land. How could any man want more?

His father was on his back again, taunting him about the loss of Blue Ridge, hounding him over settling down and finding a good woman.

Fireblade, his mustang, shook his mane in agitation at something—rattlesnake maybe. The cool mystery of night brought out all kinds of creatures—Chase knew that all too well. His horse—ever steady, ever reliable—walked on, picking his way carefully through the dust and burrs of the west Texas earth.

Chase took him right to the edge of the near acres, to the point where the land became even wilder and more open. It was still the Trumans’, had been for an age, but out there was something else, wild and untamed. The cattle grazed and moved across it, and although the Truman name may have been on the deeds, it never felt as if it really belonged to them properly. He adjusted himself in the saddle and gazed out as the sun disappeared over the ridge. There it was, that far hill that haunted him, giving off its strange gray-blue tinge. They had thousands of acres—why more? But his father had wanted it all his life, and Chase, in his father’s eyes, had lost it.

That old familiar ache started in Chase’s belly and he cursed it away. He rode on until he came to the faded, bleached wood of the old ranch house. It was derelict now, long abandoned. Chase had spent many happy hours here as a child and since—it was his get-away.

Fireblade took a few jittery steps and whinnied.

Whoa, boy. What’s up?

The horse threw back his head and snorted. Something was there. Fireblade was never wrong, and this time it was more than an inquisitive rattlesnake, Chase could tell. He eased himself smoothly off the stallion and drew his revolver.

Chase took slow and steady steps toward the old house, every sense alert to danger. He edged around the corner, his Colt .45 primed before him. Nothing.

The sense of danger was familiar and exhilarating. He continued, peering through