You Are Always on My Mind Read online

  YOU ARE ALWAYS ON MY MIND

  BY

  SABLE HUNTER

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  You Are Always on My Mind

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright 2015 © Sable Hunter

  Cover by JRA Stevens

  For Sable Hunter

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

  To My Readers:

  Harper’s story has been a long time coming. She was first introduced in Cowboy Heat and wove her way into my heart as Noah’s on-again/off-again girlfriend who seemed to have her own set of ghosts. If you remember, she was a victim of Ajax, the Dom who hated Isaac and almost killed Noah. At the time, we didn’t know what made Harper the way she was – what made her tick. I could see the writing on the wall, she wouldn’t be the one who could keep Noah McCoy in line. He needed a stronger hand and the woman for that job was none other than SKYE BLUE.

  As I was writing FORGET ME NEVER, I created this amazing character named Revel Lee Jones who was so loyal to his friend Patrick and his memory that he was willing to marry the love of Patrick’s life to give their son a name and a future. But Savannah knew Harper was Revel’s soulmate and she believed in the power of love so strongly that she told Revel to go find Harper.

  Anyway, I’m going to spoil my own story if I keep going. What I wanted to tell you is that I have tied all of the stories together – Noah and his family, especially the storyline from BADASS, Savannah and Patrick in FORGET ME NEVER, Beau and Harley from BURNING LOVE and Dandi and Lucas in FINDING DANI. The Hell Yeah! Cajun are all connected.

  Now, that’s not to say you can’t read this as a standalone, because I’ve tried to tell the important elements of the stories from a different perspective so you could remember, yet not be bored.

  Their lives are connected, like ours are - - so enjoy.

  We all like to think we have a soulmate. Unfortunately for some of us, we miss them, passing unseen like two ships in the night. Revel and Harper were among the lucky ones, they knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were meant for one another. In a perfect world, they would’ve enjoyed a ‘happily ever after’. But this isn’t a perfect world.

  Harper is haunted by her past, a past so tragic and so unthinkable that she can’t even imagine confessing it to Revel. And she knows from past experience, that when he learns the shameful truth about her – nothing will be the same. So to protect him, she walks away.

  Harper underestimated Revel’s love for her. From the moment she disappeared, he set out to bring her home. Their journey to love is one fraught with ghosts from the past, both real and imagined, and a demon from their present who is intent on making sure she has no future. But those ghosts and demons have never met a hero like Revel Lee. He is determined to give Harper exactly what she needs…until Harper realizes that all she needs is him.

  YOU ARE ALWAYS ON MY MIND is a book with a little of everything. At its sexual core, it gives a nod to BDSM. Revel learns how to please Harper, to give her a little bite with her pleasure, even when he would rather cut off his own arm rather than cause her a moment of pain. There is also a touch of the paranormal, a ghost story so sad that the tears it brings are still fresh today.

  Above all, this book tells the story of a love so strong and so enduring that neither distance, time or tragedy can keep them apart. They aren’t able to forget for one moment what their love feels like – and neither will you.

  REVEL AND HARPER – YESTERDAY, ONCE MORE

  “Harper, I need you again,” he whispered, his erection so throbbing and hard that he shook with the need to sink inside of her. She was always wet for him, her body the perfect complement to his. He had been her first lover, she would be his last. There was no use searching for another when she gave him everything he needed, everything he desired.

  Rolling to her back, she smiled at him. Her face was angelic, with big dark eyes and full pink lips. “Take me, Revel, make me yours,” she murmured as she placed a hand behind his neck and pulled him forward.

  He needed no further invitation. Revel joined their lips, immersing himself in the kiss. She was so sweet, he couldn’t get enough. His tongue played with hers, twining and tangling as his hand cupped her lush breast. To Revel she was perfect—the epitome of what a lover should be. How lucky could one man get?

  “Give me what I need.” Her hand ventured down to grasp his dick. It was long and thick for her. “I want it hard. Rock the bed, baby.”

  Her erotic demands thrilled him. He rose above her, stroked his cock and settled between her wide-spread thighs. “How hard?” he asked teasingly.

  She placed her hands on his shoulders, molding his muscles, her eyes fucking his even as her hips lifted in supplication. “Punish me, I’ve been very bad.”

  Revel didn’t really understand, but he intended to fulfill her fantasies if it was in his power. “Bad is good.” He knew that for certain, her insatiable sexual appetite was every man’s dream. Capturing her hands, he entwined their fingers and held them over her head, resting his weight and putting her at his mercy. She seemed to get off on that—his being dominant, her being submissive.

  Like joining two perfectly fitting puzzle pieces, Revel put the tip of his cock to the tiny opening that would stretch to accommodate his girth. The first time they’d made love, he’d had to work it in, showing more patience than he ever knew he possessed. But fuck, it’d been worth it. And now, now—it was more of the same. Every damn time he sank his cock into her it was pure heaven.

  “Move, baby,” she urged him, canting her hips, moving sensually. Harper didn’t just lie there to be fucked. She parried every thrust, lifting her hips, squeezing his cock. Revel moaned at how good it felt.

  He set up a rhythm, the slap of his balls against her flesh the only sound save for those incredible sexy little grunts and whimpers she made. “More?” he asked, knowing what her answer would be. Harper could take whatever he dished out. He had no idea women craved sex the way she did.

  “I want forever,” she murmured. “And I want on top.” She shifted and he helped, reversing their position. Revel loved it. The sight of her riding him was an aphrodisiac in itself. “Oh, you feel so good deep inside of me.” Harper grasped his hands and brought them to her breasts. “Work my nipples.”

  Her demand was no chore. Immediately he licked his lips, grasped her fat, sassy nipples and milked them, pulling and tweaking them between his fingers. He could see she liked it. “Harder, pinch them.” She covered his hands with hers as if encouraging him. Revel gave her what he could. She was so precious—so soft, so sweet. To him, Harper was a delicate feminine flower that he was afraid he’d bruise if he wasn’t careful.

  “I need more, Soldier-boy,” she encouraged with a hint of frustration in her voice.

  “Name it, it’s yours.” Revel would do his best.

  We all keep scrapbooks, or at least most of us do. They span our lifetime, capturing moments that define our lives. When you’re in an introspective nostalgic mood, you might sit down and scan through the pages. Knowing where you are at the present, it’s easy to look back and see how the events in your life led you t
o the place you find yourself in now. Some of the lost moments will make you smile, and some will make you cry. Some you will wish to eradicate, yank the yellowed photo from the page and wad it up, crushing the memory. Others you will run a finger over the faded image and dream of reliving the precious time.

  Below in the prologue, and the first three chapters, you will find memories of Revel Lee Jones and Harper Summers—vignettes of their past, photos from the scrapbooks of their lives. Events that led them to the moment of the day that would be…the first day of all their tomorrows together.

  Step with me through the looking glass…

  PROLOGUE

  Revel at thirteen…wrapping houses on Halloween night with his best friend Patrick O’Rourke

  “Run, Revel, run!” Patrick gasped as he took off, charging through Uncle Willie’s vegetable patch, a trail of cheap toilet paper waving behind him. He was just a shadow darting through the fall night lit by a billion stars.

  The wispy train glowed faintly in the moonlight, a spot of white that Revel could follow as they fled the scene of yet another house they’d swathed in tissue. “I’m right behind you!”

  Uncle Willie came charging out of his yard, waving his deer rifle. “You’d better run, you little flea-bitten varmints! If I ever get my hands on you, I’ll blister your backsides. Don’t think I don’t know who you are, I recognize sugarcane trash when I see it!”

  At the familiar slur, Revel winced. “Willie saw me,” he whispered loudly, catching up to Patrick.

  “Aw, he’s just guessing.” Patrick panted, slowing down. They’d made it to the edge of the field. “Let’s rest.”

  Both boys plopped down on the ground, wiping the sweat from their brows. The calendar might read October, but the temperature gauge was holding in the eighties. “We’ve wrapped four houses and we’re out of paper.” Revel leaned back against a cypress tree-stump, glancing furtively around, making sure there wasn’t a snake coiled up behind him. “I sorta miss trick-or-treating. At least we’d have something to eat.” He was always hungry, there never seemed to be enough food in their bare pantry to fill him up.

  “Here.” Patrick handed him a chocolate candy bar. “I took some from Paddy’s bowl by the front door. He’s handing out candy at Evermore tonight.”

  Revel accepted the Snickers and began peeling off the paper, almost inhaling the nutty chocolate nougat. “Thanks, I needed this.” He looked up at the bright full moon. “I doubt my pop will be handing out treats tonight, I think he’s drunk. He was coughing like the devil when I left. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.” Keeping his distance from his father was a habit. His father was a hitter. He’d hit Revel’s mom when she’d been alive. Now he hit Revel.

  Patrick let out a long breath. “Maybe he ought to see a doctor.”

  “We don’t go to a doctor unless it’s a have-to situation. The distance might only be a half mile from my home to yours, Patrick. But we’re a world apart. You live in the plantation house and I live in the slave quarters.”

  “You do not,” Patrick protested. “There’s no such thing as slaves anymore. Besides, Paddy doesn’t own Evermore, he’s just the caretaker. You and your dad work for the same people he does.”

  “Yea, maybe.” Revel tossed a stick a few feet in front of him. He didn’t argue with his best friend. There wasn’t any use. Until someone walked in his shoes, they’d never understand the journey. He and his dad worked the sugarcane fields, living in one of the shanties provided free to the workers. If the truth were known, they didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. Things had only gotten worse since his mother died. “It’ll be different someday, though, my life will be different.” He didn’t want to be anything like his old man—nothing.

  Patrick nodded. “Let’s enlist in the Marines when we get old enough, see the world.”

  Revel laughed. “Okay, I saw a T-shirt the other day.” He chunked another limb into the bushes. “Join the Marines, travel to foreign lands, meet exotic people…and kill them.”

  Snorting, Patrick laughed. “Well, maybe. Still, we can get out of Louisiana, away from all this.” He waved his hand into the darkness. “You’d never believe what I saw tonight.”

  “What?” Revel heard the change in Patrick’s tone and knew something was bothering him.

  “Don’t ask me how, but I got railroaded into taking these two girls who were visiting Evermore down to the old slave well, the one that’s supposed to be haunted.” He paused, as if for effect and to see if Revel was listening.

  “Yea, go ahead. What did you see, a ghost?” Revel made his voice sound eerie. Even though he didn’t believe in ghosts, he did like to be scared.

  Even in the dusky dark, Patrick could see he had Revel’s attention. “No, but I did see something in the well. There’s an old legend that if you look in the well on a full moon on Halloween night, you’ll see the face of the woman you’re going to marry.”

  Revel snickered. “So, did you?”

  “I saw something, a face, I’m going to go home tonight and draw her so if I see her later…”

  “You can run?” Revel enjoyed teasing his friend.

  “Yea, something like that.” Patrick’s tone had grown serious.

  Revel didn’t think Patrick intended to run from the girl in the well. “Hey, I don’t need a well to know who I want. I’ve already got a girl picked out.”

  “Really?” This was news to Patrick. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Only a few months ago, their conversation would’ve been different. But their bodies were changing, hormones were rushing through their veins. Revel had gotten his first erection when he was ten, he hadn’t even known what was happening, but now he was getting them regularly and one girl in particular was inspiring them. “Harper Summers. Do you know her?”

  Patrick looked at Revel, his jaw dropping. This didn’t sound like his friend. “No. Who is she?”

  “Old Clotille Deveraux’s granddaughter. There’s some family thing going on, she lives with her aunt in Texas now. I think she and her husband adopted Harper. She spends her summers here, though, at Wildwood.” Revel had heard other stuff. Her real parents were dead, supposedly her mother had gone crazy and killed her husband and then herself. But who was he to judge? None of it was her fault. He wasn’t anybody special, and as far as he could tell—Harper was perfect.

  “There they are!” Seemingly from out of nowhere, Uncle Willie’s irate voice split the night air. The sound of footfalls crashing through the crops revealed their progress.

  “Damn, he’s after us.” Revel jumped up. “Let’s go. What did you do, break a window or something?”

  Patrick laughed as they took off. “No, but I did put some fresh cow patties on his doorsteps.”

  Revel rolled his eyes. Sometimes Patrick’s sense of humor was warped. “We’d better split up. I’ll see you in school tomorrow.” He waved at his friend as they each turned toward their respective destinations.

  As Revel ran, he wondered what Harper was doing. Was she happy? If their paths crossed again, would she like him? He wasn’t good enough for her, even he knew that.

  But if he ever got the chance to get to know her, he’d be good to her. For whatever time she’d allow.

  Harper at thirteen…trying to cope

  Harper sat in the old-fashioned clawfoot tub and scrubbed her skin until it was raw. She felt so dirty. This was her second bath tonight. She’d awoken from one of her dreams and knew she couldn’t stand to lie between the sheets another minute. Remembering his hands on her, she felt trapped.

  Big tears ran from her cheeks, falling to the water below. How could he have done that to her? She’d worshiped the ground he walked on.

  Her first memories of her father were like bright shiny bubbles that glistened in the sunlight. Harper just knew her father was the most perfect man in the world. Her mother was beautiful and her dad was so handsome. He would carry her high on his shoulders and call her his little prince
ss. Oh, how lucky she’d been!

  But like all bubbles, this one eventually burst.

  At first, she hadn’t even understood what was happening. They’d lived in a big old house in New Iberia, not too many miles from where her grandmother lived on the Bayou Teche. Harper had been a spoiled only child. Her parents had made this special room just for her. A room fit for a princess, they told her. Her furniture had been white and the coverlet and curtains had been a pale baby pink. If anyone peeped inside and saw her playing dress-up or drinking tea with her dolls, they would have never suspected the horror to come.

  When her father had first begun visiting her at night, she’d welcomed him. He was her daddy. He loved her. And when he wanted to touch her, to stroke her hair, to rub her back—she was happy. He was paying attention to her and she was the luckiest little girl in the world. He’d made her feel good, lulling her to sleep, lying in the bed with her. Who wouldn’t want that?

  But after months, when his touches progressed to more—Harper realized something was wrong. At first, she’d liked it. His attention made her feel important and special. But then, he’d hurt her and it dawned on Harper that this wasn’t right. Daddies didn’t do this to their little girls. Did they?

  So, she’d asked him to stop. “Please, Daddy, please don’t.” But he’d made her lie still, he’d make her take it. When she would cry, he’d hold his hand over her mouth.

  And when she’d told her mother, Bernadette, she’d slapped Harper and told her to shut her mouth. She hadn’t believed Harper. Her mother turned a blind eye to what her husband was doing to her daughter.

  How does a little girl cope with abuse for years when she’s warned not to breathe a word, not to cry, not to run and hide?

  Harper withdrew into herself, she found ways to survive, she dreamed of a brighter tomorrow when she wouldn’t dread to hear his footsteps coming down the hall.