Danger In Oleander: A Cowboy's Heart Novel

  Chapter One

  A month later…

  The rays of the late summer sun shining through the open drapes of her bedroom, and danced across the white sheets of the bed that concealed a nude, curvaceous body beneath it. Itching its way up a little more, the bright sunlight danced across a side of Emily’s sleeping face, and over one of her closed eyes.

  The sudden warmth resonating from it, as well as the intense light of it, caused her to tightly close her eyes and pulled the fabric over her face and head out of frustration at it wanting to wake her up.

  Oh come on! It’s too early for you to be waking me up like this today!

  She curled herself up in this sheet until her body looked like a caterpillar wrapped up within it, attempting to keep the sun from disturbing her sleep anymore. Emily moved over to lie on her side to have her back facing the window before she proceeded to drift back to sleep.

  Maybe I can finally get some sleep, and enjoy a day where I can stay in bed a little late.

  Before her body had gone too far into sleep, Emily picked up on the faint sound of the door to her room opening up, and some footsteps walking in there. The gentle noise caused a muffled groan to slip out of her mouth before her sleepy voice could be heard.

  “Granny, its Saturday!” She whined, hoping it would help her in letting her get some extra sleep in. “We don’t have any parties to get ready for today or any work to start on right now. Can’t I have just a few more minutes to sleep?”

  Emily hoped that her request would be heard and that Granny belle would give her some more time to rest and let her body have those last few more moments.

  Instead of catching the sound of the door closing and footsteps walking away, she noticed the noise of the feet walking closer to where she was nestled in the bed to be heavy…and loud.

  Okay…My granny doesn’t have a heavy walk like that…So…Someone else in here with me.

  Her curiosity and fear about the mystery person that was now in her room ate away at her, and cause her to lift her head up, and open one of her closed eyelids.

  Moving across the hardwood floor of her room from the opened doorway, John smiled towards the fatigued expression on her face. He had his arms hanging loose at his sides of his fitted, dark gray short-sleeved top, and dark denim blue jeans as his tall, muscular frame sat down on a side of her bed.

  “Morning, darling.” He said, whispering to her. The unbridled passion he had shown to her during their time together slipped to the surface. “I think it is time for you to get up, and out of this bed.”

  Her mind went into a complete state of shock from finding her grandmother’s ranch hand, and her own cowboy to not only be moving into her bedroom but that was now sitting beside her on the large bed she had spent most of her summer nights on. Emily took a moment to let it sink in before she managed to sit up a little more, and focus on the conversation.

  “J-John,” she asked, “What are you doing in here?” Her voice found its way trembling out of her mouth despite her best attempt to keep it from doing just that. “I-I mean…You are normally not in the house in the morning…and I don’t remember you coming up here at this time of the day anytime during the time period I have been here.”

  * * *

  John couldn’t help but softly chuckle at how cute and alluring she looked at the moment to him with the flat sheet wrapped around to conceal her curves even though it only highlighted them, and made his attraction for her that much more stronger.

  “Normally, I wouldn’t be up here at this time of the day, Emily.” He replied with the words rolling off of the tip of his tongue. “Your grandmother would have stopped me long before I could make it to the very first step.”

  “Well…” Emily replied, sitting up a little more, with her sincere curiosity slipping out and into the open. “Why are you up here than?”

  “I came up here to see if you would like to go out for a ride with me.”

  “You mean in your truck?”

  “No…On a horse ride.”

  “You ride the horses without my granny knowing-“

  “She knows that I ride them…It is the only way that I can get the more wild ones that come here to warm up, and become more tame.”

  “Oh…”

  “So…Are you up for it? I have the perfect horses for the both of us to go out on the ride waiting outside if you are willing to go off for a bit with me.”

  John hoped, secretly, that she would agree to going out on the trip with him. He enjoyed spending whatever time he could get alone with her, and knew that this morning offered them a wonderful opportunity to do just that.

  “What about my grandmother, John?” Emily possessed a high amount of hesitance within it as she spoke to him. “Won’t she wonder where we-“

  “Belle has gone to Houston today to order some more supplies for the ranch, Emily, and she won’t be back for some time.”

  “I…I don’t know…”

  He saw the nervousness there, and knew that the idea of riding on the back of a horse scared her immensely. It was not that Belle could find out about what was going on but the fact that she would be on the back of a horse.

  Wishing to erase all of her conflicting emotions away and out of her system, John used one of his strong hands to cup the bottom of her chin, and lift her head up to where their mouths pressed against one another in a tender kiss full of passion and admiration. He loved her with every fiber of his being, and wanted to show her a whole new side to him that would knock her socks off.

  John slowly pulled out of the kiss with her, and focused on her face in time to catch her eyes, fluttering before they could fully focus on him. The sight brought a faint smirk to his face as he spoke up once more.

  “So…Are you going to get out of this bed so we can spend some much needed time together…or am I going for the little trip by myself?”

  Chapter Two

  Ring.

  Before Emily could give him an answer to the question that he had for her, she picked up on the sound of her bedside phone ringing loud and proud.

  Aw come on! Can’t I have an easy morning for once?!

  She shook her head as she reached over and picked up the cordless phone from where it had been resting on its charging station. The same hand brought it up to a side of her face while the other one clung to the soft cotton fabric that kept her naked, curvy frame from being seen and out in the open.

  “Morning.” Emily said “This is Emily Withers.” She spoke with a confident, charming tone in her voice, attempting to hide the obvious tone of exhaustion from it. “How may I be of service to you today?”

  “How about taking off all of your clothes, and spreading your legs wide open for me to pound my dick over and over again?”

  The question she got from the other side of the phone from a male voice surprised and also repulsed her. She couldn’t believe the nerve of this individual calling her up, and making such a disgusting suggestion that it made her close to vomiting.

  “Excuse me?!” Emily couldn’t believe what was just said to her over the phone, and just had to ask again. “What did you just say to me?”

  “I guess you are not good at hearing things like the last time we were together…but you were never that bright to begin with.”

  It was in that very second she recognized who the owner of the voice was: Johnathon Warrens, the very man whom she had not only dated but someone that had tried to hurt both John and herself at her granny’s Mid-Summer party.

  The revelation brought her to stand up from the bed where John had been sitting on with her. Emily kept a grip on the sheet as she moved over towards a corner of the room
while her other hand kept the phone to a side of her face, tightly.

  “J-Johnathon?” She asked, fearfully. “Is it really y-you?”

  “You know it, baby.” Johnathon spoke with a cocky tone in his voice that was a very poor attempt on his part to sound sexy and alluring to her. “I have been thinking about your gorgeous body, and all the things that I want to do to it.”

  “I don’t know if you have forgotten about this…but you are currently behind bars and-“

  “Not anymore.”

  Her heart almost stopped from the mere sound of what her former flame said to her. Not only did he want to do degrading things to her…but that he was no longer in jail.

  “What do you mean ‘not anymore’?!”

  “I am a free man as of today…and my dick is ready to make you feel the pleasure that can’t match up to what that little sissy of a cowboy can’t give to you.”

  Emily went to respond to him when she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. She glanced over, and found John to be standing by her with a hand extended out and a fierce look burning in his gaze.

  * * *

  Having heard the conversation and seen how upset Emily had become, John couldn’t stand by a second longer and have this idiot harass his angel.

  “Give me the phone, Darling.” He whispered his words to her in such a way that it would make anyone quack with absolute fear of angering him for a moment longer.

  John waited for the phone to make contact with the palm of his hand before he brought it up to a side of his face where the receiver was against one of his ears, and the mouthpiece rested a few inches from his strong lips.

  “What do you say, Emily?” Johnathon’s voice escaped over the receiver of the phone into his ear with all of his best effort to try and sound sexy. “How about I come over, pick you up, and show you how a real man fucks his lady?”

  I am going to so enjoy putting this little worm in his place with little trouble on my part.

  Smirking, John drew in a breath of air, and let his loud, southern voice come over the phone with a chuckle lingering within it.

  “Sorry, sweetheart, but you are not my type.”

  No sooner had he spoke over the phone towards the individual that had been tormenting Emily’s psyche and disrupting her summer there, the next noise that echoed was the sound of the phone dropping onto a hard surface on the other end of it.

  Talk about a clumsy oaf…Can’t even keep a grip on the phone when someone that isn’t afraid of him pops on the line.

  John maintained his cool, calm demeanor as he listened to her ex-boyfriend scrambling around with the phone to get a good hold on it. He drew in a breath of air, and released it with his voice coming out in a highly annoyed tone.

  “If you are done with picking on a girl…maybe you feel like taking on someone your own size, asshole.”

  “You are nothing but all talk, John.” Johnathon’s attempt to sound brave over the phone failed horrible and showed his own nervousness instead. “I can easily put you in your place, and make Emily see you for the bitch that you are.”

  “I am pretty sure that I did just that to you last month when you thought about placing your hand on Emily at Belle’s party. So…If there is a bitch here…It is you, Johnathon.”

  “You are going to regret saying that, John…I am going to make your life a living hell.”

  “And how do you propose to do that, douche bag?”

  “How about I start…with your house and that pathetic mutt of yours that you left alone inside?”

  He didn’t just threaten to do something to his home…but also threatened to do something to his beloved companion and watch dog, Fang. Johnathon crossed the line and he would pay if he did something to the two of the three things in his life that meant everything to him.

  Throwing the phone down against the hardwood floor with enough strength to break it, John dashed towards the direction of the open doorway to her room as his voice came out in a hurry.

  “Don’t leave the house, Emily.”

  Chapter Three

  Confusion ran rampant through her entire being at witnessing the anger that dwelled inside of John’s tall frame as a feeling of fear that was just as strong started to come to the surface.

  Why does he want me to stay here and not go with him?

  Something was wrong…Very, very wrong, and there was no way that she was going to stay alone in her grandmother’s home when danger was lurking very close to her.

  Tossing off the only fabric that kept her naked body from being seen in the light or by another’s eyes, Emily made a mad dash over to her closet. Her hands flung the door wide open, and yanked down the closest outfit hanging before her: A black tracksuit that consisted of a quarter length sleeved jacket and a pair of flared, drawstring pants.

  What do you think you are doing, Emily?!

  Her conscience screamed out at her desire to remove the sheet from her body and get herself dressed for a trip to go after John.

  If I am not mistaken…John instructed you to stay put, and not to leave this house.

  I don’t listen well to others when they or someone else is in danger.

  Emily kept her answers prompt and on time with her inner self as she slipped her arms into the sleeves of the jacket.

  I know a trap when I see one…and John is heading right into the heart of one that is going to put him in deep trouble.

  She hooked the bottom of the zipper of the jacket together with her hands until one of them could hold it still and steady. Her free one moved onto the small handle of the zipper, and pulled it up towards the direction of her neck, sealing her round, firm breasts from being out in the open.

  Um…Emily…

  Yes…

  Why are you not wearing a bra?

  I don’t have time to put one on…or to ease on a pair of underwear.

  On that note, Emily reached over to where her pants to go with the jacket was nestled, and snatched them up into the palms of her soft, fair skinned hands. The tips of her fingers worked their way onto the waistband, and held onto the pants to where she could easily step inside. Her long legs slipped inside of them, and guided her feet out to the other side to rest on the floor. Emily took a few moments to secure the pants on her midsection, and keep them from falling down, showing her round, tight bare ass or her trimmed pussy.

  You have truly lost your mind, Emily! Are you really going to race after John with nothing underneath your clothes and yourself being vulnerable to whatever it is that your ex has to throw at you?!

  She reached down, and picked up a solitary black sneaker before her hand slipped it onto her right foot. Emily wasted little time in repeating the same motion to the other foot on her way to the doorway of her room while she responded back to her conscience with authority

  I am doing that right now.

  * * *

  Making his way back to his home in his heavy duty pick-up truck, John flew the driver side door wide open, and quickly got down from the inside of his truck.

  “Fang!”

  He called out in desperation for his canine friend that had been with him since he was a puppy. If anything happened to him because of something that Johnathon had done, there would be no stopping his anger.

  “Fang!”

  John darted across the lawn and up to the front door. His eyes looked through the screen door of his home, and saw a sight that caused his worry and concern to disappear.

  Sitting on his heels on the other side, Fang wagged his tongue out at him while his long, fuzzy tail swished side to side, quickly, revealing how happy he was to see his human companion back.

  Thank god…Fang is okay.

  John’s hands shook as he opened the front door, and moved inside the small well-built home that he had been staying in for the last few years. He knelt down, and wrapped his strong arms around the neck of Fang’s body.

  “Oh my dear friend.” John spoke to him in a soft, sincere whisper. “I was so w
orried about you, Fang.”

  He moved his body to sit back on his heels, and focused on Fang’s face. A smile danced across his own shortly before a chuckle escaped from the confines of his mouth.

  “Looks like that stupid little punk Warrens was only issuing an empty threat to me when he said he was going to do something to make my life a living hell-“

  His speech to his dog ended, abruptly, when the high pitched sound of wheels flying away from the front of his home. The noise brought him to his feet, and to where he had his pick-up parked out in the yard.

  Even though his home and dog were untouched, the brand new tires on his vehicle were not spared. All four of them had been sliced with a box cutter, leaving them in shreds.

  Why that little shit! He ruined my brand new tires! I am going to wring his little-

  His train of thought stopped when he caught sight of a note under a window wiper on the front of the truck. John walked up towards it, and used his right hand to pull it loose. He took his other hand, and used it to steady the paper, allowing his eyes to read over the words.

  John, since you managed to save your home and that filthy mutt of yours, I am going to replace them with shredding these tires of yours…and doing as I please with a certain southern belle that you have left all alone up the road at Belle’s ranch. Don’t worry…I will take…special care of her from now on.

  Oh no…Emily…

  He had left her all alone at her granny’s farm with no means to protect herself from her crazed former boyfriend and all the deviant thoughts that he had deep inside for her.

  Shooting off like a rocket, John raced down the stretch of road in the direction of where he had come from with his arms pumping and fueling the speed he was moving at. His focus shifted from his truck’s slashed tires to getting to his woman before Johnathon could hurt her.