Page 24 of Her Juicy Cherry (Sweet Treats 2)

“Fornicators!” she screams again. “What you were doing is unnatural and the ultimate sin! Begone!”

Hank and Huck aren’t even listening. They bind her mouth with duct tape, and then wrap zip ties around her wrists and ankles. Rhea struggles, but it’s no good. She’s bound up tight, and only muffled sounds escape from her mouth, although her eyes are still wide and crazy-looking above the silver tape.

“What’s going on?” I ask as Huck and Hank grimly get dressed. “What are you going to do with her?”

They don’t answer, merely pulling on their clothes.

“What’s going to happen?” I ask again, clutching the flimsy apron to my curves. It feels cold, and I’m beginning to shiver.

Huck shoots me one piercing look.

“It’s better if you don’t know, Courtney.”

With that, he and Hank grab Rhea and hustle her out of the kitchen. I hear the front door bang, and then Huck’s truck starts with a growl outside. Fortunately, it’s already dark so I can’t see them frog-marching Rhea to the vehicle, but I’m confident they tossed her in the back.

The truck zooms off, the taillights disappearing in the night, and I’m left in the kitchen, stunned. What just happened? Did Rhea really just burst in, interrupting our lovemaking? Did she really call us fornicators, and imply that we’re “unnatural” and “abnormal” because of our bisexual threesome?”

It seems hard to believe in this day and age, but then again, there are people of all stripes and colors out there. To each their own. Right now, I just want to know that Hank and Huck are safe. Shivering, I get dressed before sitting down to wait at the table.

In an hour or so, the truck comes rattling back up the drive to the private cabin. Doors slam, and then Hank and Huck reappear in the foyer.

“What happened?” I ask, running to them with tears in my eyes. “What did you do? You didn’t kill her, did you? I don’t think I could live with that.”

Both men look grim, but they shake their heads.

“We didn’t kill her,” grunts Hank. “Although I would have liked to.”

“We drove her to the outskirts and ditched her,” answers Huck. “It’s cold, and she’s going to have a hard time finding her way back to civilization.”

“Oh my god,” I gasp. “But Rhea’s old! She’s going to die! You have to go back!”

Hank is unhelpful.

“Serves her right if she dies,” he grunts with satisfaction.

Huck is more judicious. He puts an arm around me, holding my curves close to his broad form.

“Rhea’s going to be fine,” he says. “We dropped her about a mile from the nearest highway. There are plenty of barns in that area, so she’ll find her way to safety for the night. We just wanted to shock her a bit after her bigoted treatment of you.”

I nod slowly.

“But are you sure she’s going to be okay?”

Huck nods again.

“Yeah. Even if she doesn’t find a barn to sleep in, it’s not that cold. It’s summer, baby. And tomorrow, when she wakes up, she’ll see the cell phone towers protruding all over the landscape.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh good. I couldn’t live with myself if she died.”

Hank merely snorts again.

“It would serve her right if she did. She’s such a fucking prejudiced old woman. What’s wrong with what we were doing?” he rages. “I can’t enjoy my girl and my man? What’s so wrong about that?”

Huck calms him a bit.

“Now you know that not everyone accepts our lifestyle, my friend. And she caught us during the dirtiest part of our act. That would be a shock for anyone.”

But Hank isn’t appeased.

“Yeah, because she burst in on us without knocking! What the fuck! What the fucking fuck? She deserves to go to hell,” he adds angrily.

I take a deep breath.

“I think she was bigoted,” I say in as calm a voice as I can muster. “Rhea was implying that we’re abominations of nature for loving more than one person, and because the two of you love each other too. But her value system is twisted and warped. There’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing. The fact that we enjoy being with each other is only multiplying and strengthening our love. There’s nothing wrong or immoral about it.”

“Exactly,” says Huck. “But you can’t change some people. Their views are so prejudiced that it becomes a part of them. It’s a cancer that spreads, poisoning their souls until there’s nothing left but the shell of a human being.”

I draw in a long, shaky breath.

“I’m glad she’s gone,” I admit in a whisper. “But what about us? Now that Rhea knows, are we done with? The summer’s going to be over soon, and I’m not sure where you wanted to go with this.”

Immediately, Hank and Huck’s eyes swing to me, blazing.

“We want you to stay, of course. Did you think otherwise, sweetheart? You mean so much to us, and have shown us so much about food, love, and everything that goes with it. Did you really think we were going to let you go after what we’ve discovered together?”

---