Free The Devil's Cowboy by Kallista Dane Page A

head. No, that’s not right, she argued silently. That may be what you believe, but it’s not true .
    He lit a bundle of sage, dropping it into a pearly white abalone shell and waving an eagle feather over it to disperse wisps of smoke around the room, all the while murmuring some incantation in a language Ellen couldn’t understand. It sounded like Latin, but then there were words that reminded her of Indian chants she’d heard when she attended a ceremony back on the Cherokee reservation in the mountains. She glanced around and frowned. The room was getting hazy and the smoke seemed to be clouding her vision, making her head hurt. She moved away a few steps.
    “You’re right,” he said, as though hearing her thoughts again. “That last part was an old Indian blessing I learned from a Lakota medicine man I studied with a few years back. I’m not sure exactly how the dark force that’s here originated, so I’m calling on a variety of spirits to assist us.”
    He circled the room slowly and methodically, waving the eagle feather over the smoldering bundle as he walked, sending the smudge into every corner.
    Ellen stood alone, transfixed, as the smoke twisted and swirled. Shapes appeared and disappeared in the mist, becoming more distinct as she stared. She found herself caught up in the smoky haze, drifting outside her body above the room. She heard voices. Faint whispers carried on the smoke, promising savage pleasures to come that would fulfill all the wicked, secret desires she’d hidden deep inside for so long… if she would only let go and follow.
    She was still aware of Rafe circling the room below, but the ceiling disappeared and she floated higher into a cloud of smoky mist. Then in the distance, Ellen watched as another Rafe materialized out of the fog. His form became more substantial and he came close, pulling her into a passionate embrace. He devoured her with kisses, left her breathless.
    Ellen threw her arms around him eagerly, hungry for more. He backed away for a moment, his eyes smoldering with lust, then reached out and ripped off her shirt. She gasped as his hot mouth fastened on one nipple, sucking and licking, biting and teasing. The faint voices whispered in her ear, “This is how it can be when you let go and come to me. I’ll give you everything you’ve ever wanted, everything you hunger for when you’re all alone in your bed at night.”
    The hands of the smoke-built Rafe unfastened her pants, pushing them down along with her panties to leave her standing naked before him. Some part of her rational brain was still functioning and she suddenly became aware of the wetness building between her legs in her real body as his shadow self drew her down and spread her thighs wide apart. Ellen gave in to the ravenous desire building inside. She opened her ethereal self willingly to him, desperate for his stiff cock to ram itself inside her and fill this sudden, frantic need.
    Rafe smiled down at her lovingly… but then the smile turned hard and cruel and she felt an intense wave of cold flow through her. The earlier voice in her head whispered an urgent plea. “Liar. Cruel and heartless. Don’t believe him. This is how it really will be.”
    Suddenly she was pinned to the floor by unseen arms, unable to move. She watched in horror as the phantom Rafe waved his arm and conjured two faceless, naked hulks out of the mist. They flowed toward her, dark and forbidding. Each one had an impossibly huge penis, already throbbing with need. The creatures stroked themselves as they moved closer. She struggled, looking up at Rafe. His eyes glowed with lust as the two men came closer to her naked body. Now he was urging them to take her any way they chose while he held her down… and watched.
    Ellen let out a strangled cry, desperately trying to force the images out of her head. She reached out blindly for something, anything, to ground her.
    Rafe, the real Rafe, was by her side in an instant. He came