Millie dressed up right and proper for the church service inside where the town's children sat during the week learning their lessons. She wore her stylish dress and a nice red hat, with a little veil on it and sat next to him in the middle pew. Jenny had brought her children who were like restless pups sitting in front of him.

He'd didn't spot Carly there since she hadn't stepped inside a church since she buried her husband. She'd been pretty in a dress back then, prettier than most of the town's women. He had sat in the back of the church watching her there with Trevor praying and singing hymns along with the rest of them. He barely mouthed the words.

But Millie wanted to sit up front where everyone could see her in her outfit, the latest to be shipped in from some boutique over in New York. Carly's dresses had traveled even further to cloak her body…coming in from Paris.

Not that she wore dresses often anymore. Her body hadn't changed but she was a different woman in other ways.

"The flowers look nice on the altar don't you think? They came special from April East's garden."

Royal couldn't tell one flower from the next to be honest, they all looked the same to him but he nodded absently. The minister who dropped in two Sunday's a month and a couple of mid-day appearances started in on the sermon on how that one day of church didn't erase six days and nights of sinning.

He hated the sermons. He didn't think a man in a black suit had the authority to speak for any god or tell anyone how to live. He had his own code so during the sermons, his mind wandered.

Damn, he thought about how Charles had tried to kill him at least twice…all because a marshal or two had screwed him over when his sister had vanished.

No, he didn't want to go there. He didn't want to imagine Dottie's fate. In her line of trade, she ran into the wrong man, she could have faced a list of horrible ends. Her body was out there waiting to be discovered or not depending on how deeply it lay buried in how remote an area.

Then there was Carly who was anywhere but church this morning. Most likely out riding down to the lake to go swimming or working in her saloon before it opened for business. To stay out of trouble with the town's moral forces, she closed its doors during church services kicking any stragglers out.

She'd looked lovely in silk, trimmed with lace and flowing down to just above her ankles. Back when she'd dressed like a lady. He imagined how it'd feel to rub the silk against her soft skin just above her semi-stockings. Her husband had done that for her and no doubt she'd enjoyed all of it. She'd always been a woman who'd embraced life as long as he'd known her.

How would she react if he slid his arms around her waist drawing her closer to him just because he had to taste her lips, before feasting on the rest of her? Would she push him away, the offended widow or would she welcome it?

What if she kissed him back, slid her tongue over his lips before trying to part them to slide it inside? A jolt moved through him just at the idea of her tracing the inside of his mouth with it, while he wrapped his lips around it. Oh he wanted that much more than he wanted to sit inside church on a hard wooden pew.

No doubt about it.

Carly sat on a rock after having splashed around in the lake. The sun bordered on hot over the valley and it'd been refreshing to go swimming for a spell after stripping off her clothes.

No one would be offended by her disrobing or cavorting buck naked since those who would fall in that group sat in church getting sermonized by a preacher who'd broken a commandment or two in his time.

As she swam, she thought about the saloon and whether or not she wanted to keep it up or just sell it. Maybe it was time to ditch this town altogether and start a new life elsewhere. No, she couldn't do that as she employed women who would starve or be forced to do worse to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. For that reason, she had to stay because she'd been there herself and it could have been a whole lot worse if someone hadn't helped her.

Course Brock Walton hadn't given his advice and help for free. The first night, he'd come calling, it'd taken him less than an hour to get her on her knees, pulling down his breeches and pulling out a rather long cock that hardened in her hand as she coaxed it before slipping her lips over it. He'd taken over at some point, thrusting it inside her mouth, chafing her lips with his rhythm, hitting the back of her throat.

But she needed the money to keep the business operating since Trevor couldn't pull his share in anymore. If there were tears to be shed, they could wait until Brock had left her.

Brock enjoyed riding his woman, on their hands and knees on the hardened floor while he loomed over them, rutting them like a bull. It hadn't been pleasurable for her but it'd done wonders for him and soon enough she didn't have to worry about making those mortgage payments. Trevor would have frowned in it but what had been the last thing he saw before those thugs killed him?

No, she didn't want to think about the past, none of it. She got off the rock and ran back into the water until it was mid-thigh and then she dove in the cool water enjoying how it slid over her as she descended into darkness.

Royal imagined he was at the lake right now watching the silhouette of a woman cavorting in the water and then walking out of the lake onto dry land. He'd walk on over to her, sliding his own hands over her slick skin as she moaned.

He'd suckle the cherry ripened nipples one by one while she begged for it and fondle the folds of her pussy sliding his finger along its cleft.

She'd buck her hips then letting him know exactly what she needed and they'd sink into the grass after he removed his own clothes hidden from the world around them.

Only the animals listening to the sounds of them joining together.

"Royal…Royal…"

He tensed his body and blinked his eyes to see Millie looking at him. The minister had left the altar and people were milling out.

"It's time to go now."

The two of them left the church, his mind still on the woman at the lake.