McKenzie, Cooper - Her Knight in Dusty BDUs [Men Out of Uniform 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  Men Out of Uniform 2

  Her Knight in Dusty BDUs

  Eden Xavier needs a hero after her brother’s truck runs out of gas in the middle of the night. As she is walking back to her combination sex toy boutique and tattoo/piercing parlor, Bailey Hawke rides to her rescue.

  Bailey is not sure he wants to get involved with anyone, but something about Eden grabs hold of his heart and won’t let go. He is a Dominant in need of a very special submissive woman who can survive the long separation without turning to others.

  When Eden’s ex-husband causes trouble, Bailey sees Eden’s strength. When she willingly submits to his demands, he realizes he might have found the woman he has been looking for.

  But will Eden’s ex ruin everything? Will Eden submit to him in all ways before he leaves? Will he be able to return and prove he is Her Knight in Dusty BDUs?

  Genre: BDSM, Contemporary

  Length: 28,228 words

  HER KNIGHT IN DUSTY BDUS

  Men Out of Uniform 2

  Cooper McKenzie

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

  HER KNIGHT IN DUSTY BDUS

  Copyright © 2011 by Cooper McKenzie

  E-book ISBN: 1-61034-917-2

  First E-book Publication: October 2011

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2011 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Her Knight in Dusty BDUs by Cooper McKenzie from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Cooper McKenzie’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. McKenzie’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  Dedicated to the heroes who keep the

  home fires burning…military spouses.

  HER KNIGHT IN

  DUSTY BDUS

  Men Out of Uniform 2

  COOPER MCKENZIE

  Copyright © 2011

  Chapter 1

  “That’s it. I give up. I’m done. I’m raising the white flag and swearing off the male of the species. Men officially suck pond scum,” Eden Xavier said as she flipped the lock on the front door of Adam’s Place and then turned off the neon Open sign.

  “What’s up?” her older-by-three-minutes twin brother, Adam Xavier, asked as he wiped down the long wooden bar of the pub they co-owned.

  Though he sounded interested, Eden knew she held less than half his attention. The rest was focused on Tawny, the waitress he had been dating since the week after she had started working for them a month ago, and who had volunteered to help clean up.

  “That guy you set me up with, Josh? He texted me about twenty minutes ago cancelling tomorrow’s coffee date. Again.”

  “So you’ll get together with him another morning.”

  “Nope. This is the third time he’s put me off. He’s history. Then there’s this text from Wade,” Eden said, referring to her ex-husband. “He’s decided that I owe him money.”

  “You owe him money? You were only married to the abusive shithead for a year and a half. You’ve been apart longer than that, and the divorce was finalized a month ago.”

  “He says, and I quote, ‘I think you should give me back the divorce settlement money to repay me for what I spent renovating the house,’ end quote,” Eden read from her cell phone screen.

  “You’ve got to be joking.”

  “It’s not enough that I didn’t fight him when he wanted to keep the house and furniture. Now he thinks I’m going to pay him for the renovations he decided the house needed, too.” Eden deleted the message then read the next one. “In this one he says if I can’t pay him a lump-sum payment, he’ll take a couple hundred dollars a month since I’m doing so well now and he’s been laid off.”

  “You’re not going to do it, are you?”

  “Of course I’m not. Every cent went into buying this building and getting Eden’s Garden up and running,” she said. “He thinks I’m going to cave like I used to. He hasn’t figured out that I’m not the same person I was when we were married.”

  When the owner of the building that housed Adam’s Place and Eden’s Garden decided to sell, she had jumped at the opportunity to buy it. At least this way she would not have to worry about sudden rent hikes that had happened at the last place she had had her little tattoo-piercing parlor and sex shop. She also no longer had to worry about the landlord caving to the super religious public sect as they tried to put her out of business.

  She also did not have to worry about people finding out she lived in the back of the shop because the building came with two upstairs apartments. As soon as she finished fixing her place up, she planned to fix the second place up and rent it out as well, which would help pay the mortgage.

  “Adam? Honey, are you ready to go?” Tawny crossed the room toward the siblings.

  “Two minutes, sugar. Eden, can you drive my truck home?”

  Eden drank the last of her ginger ale then tossed the plastic cup into the garbage can. “No problem. I can bring another load of stuff when I come back in the morning to finish painting the apartment,” she said as she led the way out of the bar into the par
king lot.

  “Sleep well, little sister,” Adam said.

  He set the alarm and locked the front door before walking with Tawny to her car on the far side of the parking lot.

  Eden climbed in and started Adam’s truck. When she saw the low gas light on the dashboard continued glowing red as she pulled out of the parking lot, she swore softly. The one gas station on the five miles between the bar and the house she and Adam shared closed at ten o’clock each night. The only all-night place she was comfortable going to after dark was five miles in the other direction. She said a silent prayer that there was enough gas left in the tank to get home and back to the bar in the morning. After that, it would be her brother’s problem.

  She was halfway home when the engine sputtered and died. She wrestled with the now defunct power steering to guide the truck far enough off the two-lane highway that it would not cause a traffic hazard. Once it rolled to a stop, she shifted it into park and turned off the engine. Climbing out, she checked the bed of the truck, but the half full gas can her brother usually carried there was missing.

  “Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn,” she said as she stomped around the truck. She paused to kick all four tires as she passed them. Her stiletto-heeled ankle boots were sexy, but provided little protection against the hard tires.

  Calling her brother, she was not surprised when the connection went straight to voicemail. Knowing Adam, he either left his phone in the bar or turned it off as soon as they had left the bar.

  “Your truck is parked by the side of the road about two miles from the bar. When you come and get it be sure to bring a couple of gallons of gas, as it is bone dry. If I die walking home, I will come back and haunt you for the rest of your life.”

  Sliding the phone back into her pocket, she retrieved her carryall from the passenger’s seat then locked the truck. She looked down the road toward the bar then up the road toward the house. Then she took a deep breath and sighed. With only the full moon playing hide and seek in the clouds overhead for light, Eden debated a moment. Two miles back to the unfinished apartment or four miles home. Looking down at her feet, she decided heading back into town was the better of the two options.

  “Adam, you are one dead brother when next I see you,” she muttered as she started walking, moving to the middle of the road after she stumbled and twisted her ankle in the uneven ground and tall grass beside the road.

  Barely a hundred yards into her hike, she stopped to pull off her shoes. After tucking them in her carryall, she continued on. The road was cool and hard under her bare feet, but she made better time without the high, high heels. As she walked, she mulled over an appropriate retribution for her brother’s negligence.

  She thought of several great ways to get back at him before admitting to herself that she did not have either the backbone or the guts to hurt her twin. Instead, Eden changed her focus. She began to list what needed finishing in her apartment and map out the renovations she needed to make on the second apartment before she could rent it out. Mostly the place just needed a good cleaning and new paint to go with the new soundproofing carpeting she and Adam had laid down throughout the upstairs.

  Eden was so lost in her thoughts it took a moment to recognize a motorized roar that quickly grew to drown out the sounds of night. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a single headlight coming toward her. She crossed to the other side of the road then stepped into the grass and froze. Maybe, if luck was with her, the rider would not notice her.

  Luck continued to elude her. The roar of the engine changed and slowed. The big motorcycle passed her then circled back. It stopped just a few yards away, blinding her with its headlight. At that moment, Eden wished she would have stayed and slept in Adam’s truck. She would have no doubt woken up with a kink in her neck, but at least she would have woken up alive.

  Her heart jumped into her throat as she squinted and tried to see past the bright light. All she could make out were broad shoulders and a motorcycle helmet. Obviously male, but was he friendly or looking for trouble?

  She began to tremble when the rumbling engines suddenly went silent. The headlights shifted to the ground as he set his kickstand and dismounted. She wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go. Town was more than a mile and a half away and the truck was too far to reach before whoever this was caught her.

  * * * *

  “What the hell?” Bailey Hawks said aloud as something in the road ahead flashed at the lead edge of his headlight.

  That flash of something red and sparkly was not a deer crossing the road. Not at three o’clock in the morning.

  Bailey eased up on the gas pedal as he passed a truck that looked brand new. It had not been there when he had taken off on his midnight ride a couple hours earlier. He would remember something that nice parked beside the road as if recently abandoned. The bike continued to coast as he kept a lookout for whatever it was they had seen.

  “There she is,” Bailey said as they rode past. A small woman with a big bag over one shoulder stood frozen by the side of the road. “What the hell is she doing out here at this time of night?” He turned around and rolled back to where the woman stood by the side of the road.

  In the harsh light from his cycle’s headlight, the woman was strikingly beautiful, though she appeared frightened. As well she should be, Bailey thought as he set the kickstand and took off his helmet.

  He found he could not take her eyes off her. Her body was lusciously curved in all the right places, and she rocked her black jeans like he had not seen in a coon’s age. She wore her hair short and spiky and looked cute as all get-out. His cock perked up as he took in the total package. Could this be the woman he had been dreaming about since breaking up with his last girlfriend?

  “Miss? Are you all right? Do you need a ride?” he asked as he began to walk toward her. When she took a step back and looked around as if ready to run, he stopped and waited for her to relax.

  Chapter 2

  The man’s voice was deep, gentle, and oddly soothing, but he was big, powerfully built, and very, very male. When he began to walk toward her, she took a step back as all the lessons she had learned in her self-defense class evaporated from her memory.

  “I’m fine, thanks. Please, just go away.”

  Eden made a shooing motion with both hands then turned and started walking again. She winced and fought down a cry when she stepped on a sharp rock. Hearing quick, heavy steps behind her, she knew there was no way she could outrun him. He was too big and no doubt in better shape than she was.

  Taking a deep breath, she decided a strong offense was called for, no matter how fake it might be. Turning, she found herself facing a man who was more than a half foot taller than she was wearing what looked like a desert camouflage uniform.

  “Go away. Please,” she said, wincing when, instead of strength, she heard stark fear in her voice.

  “I can’t leave you out here all alone, miss,” the man said. “It’s not safe. I’m headed to Cherry Point and would be glad to give you a ride wherever you need to go.”

  “You’re a Marine?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Captain Bailey Hawks at your service,” he said with a half bow. His accent was not that of eastern North Carolina, but he was definitely Southern by birth and breeding.

  Something about this encounter felt oddly out of time. Eden’s anger toward men in general evaporated as he waited patiently, his expression hopeful yet resolute. A small seed of hope grew in place of the anger as she studied him. It felt as if they had slipped back through time to an era where men were chivalrous toward women, protecting the weaker sex from any and all harm.

  “Eden Xavier,” she finally responded, her Southern belle mother’s etiquette lessons kicking in.

  “Charmed. Now, Miss Eden, where would you like to go?” Bailey stepped forward and offered his right arm as gentlemen of generations past might.

  Concern about her physical safety waning, Eden wrapped her fingers around his forearm. Her breath caught for a
second at the strength she felt there. “I’m headed back to my shop. It’s on your way to the main gate.”

  Eden allowed Bailey to escort her to his motorcycle.

  “Have you ever ridden before?” he asked as he helped her put on the helmet he had unstrapped from the back of his bike.

  “A time or two,” she said with a smile.

  If he only knew about the antique Indian Chief motorcycle that her grandfather had left her years ago. She had secretly restored it during her marriage, and it was currently taking up room in the garage behind Adam’s house.

  “Nice bike.”

  “Thank you.”

  He leaned closer, and the scent of hardworking man and dust filled her. In response, her nipples stiffened and her pussy spasmed. The sensible side of her brain chastised her body for the sexual reaction, especially since she had sworn off men less than an hour before.

  Bailey took her carryall after she retrieved her shoes out of the bag. He stowed it in one of the saddlebags on his bike while she put her shoes back on. He then he climbed on his bike. Then he helped her settle in behind him.

  Once she settled, he pulled her body forward until her front pressed tight against his back. She wanted to move back and put some air between them, but before she could move, Bailey took her wrists and pulled her arms around his chest, keeping her in place.

  “What’s the name of your shop, and how do we get there, sunflower?” Bailey asked.