Page 8 of Tusks & Saddles

Chapter Six

Boone

“What’s wrong?” Will asked, freezing with her bedroll in her hand.

“My bedroll is missing,” Boone grumbled. “Looks like I’m sleeping in the sand.”

“What?” Will stomped up beside him and did the exact same thing he did, which was rifle through his pack. “Damn.”

“It’s fine, I got my pillow and I’ll sleep on the blanket.” He truly had slept on worse things. Concrete floor in a damp, abandoned fortress for one. At least the air was dry here, and the sand was dense enough that he’d only sink a little.

“No… you can’t. Scorpions or worse will slink up into your clothes,” Willamina sighed, ripping him out of his own head.

“He ain’t gonna fit in mine,” Roger snorted from the other side of the campfire.

“You sayin’ he’ll fit in mine? ”

“Will, it’s fine—”

“You ain’t packing hooves and three hundred pounds of lean, mean, cattle meat in yours, Will.” Roger cackled as he shifted around in his bedroll.

“Shut the fuck up, Roger,” Willa spat, before she leveled her glare on Boone.

The Paladin held up his throw blanket and pillow.

Before he could even tell her he’d be fine, and could set up enchantments, she snapped a finger out in his direction.

“You too…take off your boots, I don’t want sand in my bedroll. ”

He held up his hands in defeat. No real point in fighting with her.

Bedrolls were made with enchanted fabric and furs to keep the sleeper safe from snakes, scorpions, or whatever other creepy crawlies might try and scurry in at night.

Plus, it made things significantly comfier.

Granted, they weren’t made for two people, they were made for anyone of any size to be able to use them. It would be…snug.

Right, just lay in a bedroll with the woman you’re smitten with, everything will be fine.

He grumbled to himself as he toed off his boots and let her set out the bedroll.

After she untied it, she motioned for him to step in first. Boone sank into the fuzzy death trap and lay on his right side to give her the most room possible.

When he felt her body brush his, he finally settled his bones. It wasn’t exactly comfy as he was a back sleeper. I’ve dealt with worse. Remember your training.

“Boone,” Will hissed softly.

“Yeah?” He twisted to glance over his shoulder.

“Will you get comfortable or something? You’re tenser than a brick wall,” she huffed, shuffling closer to the other seam of the roll. They were closed in, which meant there wasn’t much room to give .

“I’ll be fine, ignore me,” he grumbled.

“I can’t. Will you just get comfortable?”

“I am comfortable.”

“Don’t you fuckin’ lie to me.”

Roger groaned from the other side of the campfire and Boone swallowed his own tongue.

Fine, you want me comfy? He dropped onto his back, propping his pillow and neck up with his right arm.

His left, however, stabbed itself under the lumpy thing she used as a pillow.

Will jerked. He felt her whole body twitch.

However, as the seconds ticked by and he didn’t move, her body softened.

He felt her lean her back against his side and sink into the curve of his body.

“See…” she whispered before letting out a long, breathy yawn. “Was that so hard?”

“Go to sleep, Will.” He scowled to himself, to the glinting stars above, and to the three moons that mocked him over their heads.

Despite their looming presence, the sands were still inky and black more than ten feet from the campfire.

It was slowly creeping down into the dirt, soon it would hiss as it died out.

“I will as long as you keep your word.”

“What word?” He flopped his head toward her.

“That you sleep like a log,” she snickered softly, the little puffs of her breath brushing the sensitive side of his arm. It took all the willpower in his body not to immediately curl it around her. To pull her into his chest like a personal body pillow that burned warmer than any fire.

Boone smiled to himself, letting his eyes slowly close. “I promise. ”

At some point, he stopped counting the seconds between her breaths, gauging how long she inhaled for versus her exhale.

It was better than counting sheep, as his mind slowly slipped away.

It allowed him to settle into the bedroll and sink into his dreams. There weren’t images or people in them, just soft colors that whizzed past his eyes.

Sensations, like the feeling of something brushing against his arm, the sound of her dreamy sighs, or a snort from a cow far away from his ears.

Boone floated happily in that abyss, cradled in something warm and soft.

It was only when his ears picked up movement, that he began to wake up.

There wasn’t quite light yet, the sun still teasing the other side of the dunes but with the moons gone, it was hazy at best. Boone didn’t realize his arm had shifted in his sleep till he realized he was unconsciously brushing his thumb back and forth over something.

It was soft, satiny, and there was a peak that he would brush up to the top of, pinch it between his forefinger and pad of his thumb, then brush back down.

It was a soothing motion that he repeated over and over.

Blinking to clear the sleep from his eyes, he flopped his head to the left to see what was nestled comfortably in his palm.

Warm, soft, like a pillow fitted just for him palm.

Oh shit. Boone’s body tensed as he realized he’d curled his arm around Willamina in the night.

She was nestled in the crook between his side and elbow, smiling, lost in a dream.

His hand cupped her breast, and it was her nipple he was slowly teasing.

Like his own salacious toy, playing with it subconsciously.

Somehow, and he had a few inklings how, he’d slid that lecherous hand under her tank top.

Oh, fuck me. His cock hummed with early morning need and seeing himself play with her.

Play with my Will, with the only person to come to mind when I wanted to take care of business…

and she feels just as good as I imagined- No!

Fuck, no, I shouldn’t be… He awoke sharply, the blurriness of sleep finally slipping away.

Reality was, Will didn’t ask for that, he’d not been granted that honor.

No matter how soft her skin was, how warm or how she fit perfectly in the cup of his hand.

As he went to move, to let go, to slither out without another touch, her back arched into it.

A breathy sound escaped her, and he choked. Abort, get out of there Paladin!

Boone ripped his hand out of her shirt as fast as he could, which, of course woke up Will.

She gasped, stiffening in his arm. He laid there, face burnt to a dark forest green, and eyes wide.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, while Willamina twisted in the bedroll to face him, he realized that rustling that woke him…

was someone rifling through their bags. Maybe the Sun Bringer granted him a little mercy, for it seemed Roger, Will, and he realized someone else was in their camp at the same time.

“Oi!” Will didn’t even bother opening up the bag, she scrambled hand over ass…

and over Boone to get out of the bedroll.

He found his way out as she rushed across the sands.

Three people covered in cream colored clothing and face masks ransacked their camp.

The world was topsy-turvy as he did his best to get his bearings.

When he stood up at the center of camp, he saw Will lasso one of them by the legs.

She had him bound and gagged on the leather, her clawed hands holding his face to the sand.

Roger was chasing after one riding off into the distance on a horse.

Only, the third pulled a pistol out of his waistband and everything stopped.

“Boy, I’m warning you right now, you don’t wanna do that.” Boone put up his hands, trying to pat down the air. “Look, you three got caught. You tried it. Now you gotta have the sense to leave it with your skins still intact.”

“Fuck you! Let him go!” The third, a human from the looks of it, jerked the muzzle from Boone to Will. In his other hand was a supply sack, the remnants of it spread across the sands. Whatever they were looking for, they didn’t have the time to find just yet .

“What rich fuck did you steal that rickety ass pistol from? Huh? You even know how to fire it?!” Will snarled, eliciting a yowl of pain from the thief she had pinned beneath her. Her claws left tracks in his scalp as she yanked him by the hair. “Tell your friend to drop it.”

“Sam! Drop it!”

“No! Fuck you! Let him go!” He jabbed the muzzle directly at Will and Boone growled, stepping forward. When he did, the pistol was pointed at him. It was like the thief put two and two together, because he kept his gaze locked on Boone, but turned the barrel down to Will.

“Trust me, boy, you don’t wanna do that,” Boone’s lip curled around his tusks, “cause if you hurt her, I’m gonna have to kill ya and she’s still going to crack your friend’s skull. But if you put that gun away, and walk away, I’ll make sure your friend goes with you. Understand?”

“Let him go first.” The human thief jabbed the gun in her direction.

“That wasn’t the deal, now was it?” Boone stepped closer, his blood nearly to the point of boiling.

“Get back! I swear I’ll blow her head off—”

“Sam! Just drop the gun!” the daemon missing chunks of hair shrieked from Will’s hands.

The pistol thudded into the sand. “There! There, let him go!”

Boone looked at Will, watching her face screw up at the center. When it was obviously she wasn’t going to just honor it on her own, he huffed, “Will, let the kid go.”