Tantalizing Maria (The Temptation Saga 7)

“You just bought yourself a heap of trouble.”

Chuck’s minions grabbed Jeff by the collar and forced him to the ground. Gravel sanded his face as one asshole rubbed it into the dirt. Both his arms were pinned, and his pants and boxers were forced from his legs. He lay helpless, spread eagled on the pavement.

The guards circled the grounds, but no help would come. They turned a blind eye. What the fuck did they care? The prisoners were nothing but animals to them—animals to be hosed down and slopped a couple of times a day.

No help would come from the other inmates either. They all knew better. Look out for number one, or your number’d be up pretty quickly.

“I’m going to fuck you, Bay.” Big Chuck’s voice slithered around him like a cunning rattlesnake. “And you’re gonna love it, you interfering little pussy.”

* * *

Jeff woke with a start and sat straight up in bed. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead, his chest. His heart thundered against his sternum. His sheets were clammy and damp. The nightmare was always the same. Just as Big Chuck was about to rape him, he woke up.

Jeff closed his eyes.

Thank God it was only a nightmare. The scenario had never taken place. He’d learned to avoid the bulls in prison. He was big enough, strong enough, and though his pretty face had made him a target when he first went to Canon City, his strong fists had protected him. That and the few good friends he made early on, thank God.

Though he longed to intervene during one of the many rapes he witnessed, he’d learned not to. He suffered a beating that landed him in the infirmary for two weeks the one and only time he’d tried, with the boy from his nightmare. The poor boy had been gangbanged anyway for Jeff’s efforts.

The guilt still ate Jeff alive. All those poor boys, and he hadn’t been able to help. Hadn’t been able to do anything except close his eyes to the horror around him.

He looked at the clock on his night table. Four a.m. Well, might as well get up. The alarm would go off in an hour anyway. Funny, he hadn’t had this particular nightmare in prison. He hadn’t had to—the nightmare had been all around him. Each day was a new threat, a new horror.

No, back in prison, his nights had been reserved for Mia. She’d haunted his dreams, no matter how hard he tried to force her from his mind.

Now he’d been on her ranch for nearly a year. He’d healed a lot, pushed a lot of the resentment from his mind. Big brother Wayne had led the life Jeff should have had with Mia and their daughter. But he’d forgiven Wayne. Truly. Best not to resent the dead. What good did it do? He’d decided when he gave Angie back her inheritance that he didn’t want to live a life of resentment and become a bitter old man.

He truly didn’t want that.

But he couldn’t chase the nightmares away.

And then there was Mia.

Every time she came near him he wanted her more, longed for his lips on hers, his body entwined with hers. If possible, she was even more beautiful now than she’d been thirty years ago. She’d aged gracefully. Her hair was still black as night, and her face was still creamy and tan, with only the slightest laugh wrinkles around her eyes. Obviously, she’d laughed a lot over the years. She’d had a happy life. He’d stopped resenting that. He was glad she’d been happy with Wayne. No reason why everyone had to suffer.

And he was extremely grateful that his daughter had been happy, had lived the good life she’d deserved. He owed Wayne for that one. It w

as a debt he’d never be able to repay.

Yes, Mia. She invaded his thoughts once again. She most likely always would.

Her body was still perfect, just slightly curvier around the belly. She’d had three kids, of course.

God, he still wanted her. Had never stopped wanting her.

And she wanted him. A few months ago, she had finally come to him. She’d appeared one night at the foot of his bed.

She was a vision, her perfect body clothed in only peach-colored satin and lace. “I’m sorry for intruding, Jeff. I still have Angie’s old key.”

He shielded his eyes against her luminescence. For that’s what it was. She lit up the dark bedroom, as if the creamy-orange fabric reflected her light from within.

“It’s okay, Mia. What do you want?”

She edged a knee onto the bed. “I think you know, Jeff. I’m dressed this way for a reason.”

“Something from your drawers, I gather, that you used to wear for Wayne?”

She closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled. “No. Something I bought today. In town. Just for you. I never wore stuff like this for Wayne. We didn’t have that kind of relationship. We weren’t…in love.”