Crossroads: the Chance City Series Book Three
Copyright© 2023 by Robin Deeter
Chapter 9
Romantic Sex Story: Chapter 9 - Carter “Wheels” Ellis doubts that he’ll ever find a wife since he’s a paraplegic. But Nora Guthrie has strong feelings for him, and they begin a powerful romance. Sparks fly between Mayor Carly Branson and male prostitute Ray Stratton despite their mutual hate. Or is it love? Four people come to important crossroads. Will they find happiness, or take a wrong turn and end up heartbroken?
Caution: This Romantic Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Consensual Heterosexual Fiction Historical Mystery Western
Walt sat in Luther Kingsley’s home, trying to hold his temper in check, but it was a difficult task. Gabe Rutger, Luther’s attorney, had joined them in the parlor.
Carefully keeping his expression serene, Walt attempted to reason with Luther.
“Luther, ya know that yer not gonna get ten thousand outta Wheels. Plus, if this goes to court, there aren’t many people who are gonna be sympathetic to someone who beat up a poor little monkey.”
Gabe’s lips quivered a little as he tried not to smile.
Walt’s anger ignited. “Ya think that’s funny, do ya? Well, see how funny ya think this is. If ya don’t be reasonable and accept the two thousand Wheels is offerin’, we’ll counter sue for pain and sufferin’. Ollie may seem like just a monkey to most people, but to Wheels he’s a valuable asset.
“Ollie is trained to help Wheels with all sorts of tasks, and it would be very expensive to replace him. So, when ya beat poor Ollie, ya caused Wheels a lot of pain, not only because he loves Ollie, but because he wouldn’t know what to do without Ollie for other reasons.
“Ya better take that two thousand, which would tide ye over until yer back to work, Luther. If ya don’t, I’ve no trouble rakin’ ya over the coals in court and by the time I’m done with ya, ye’ll look like the biggest monster this town has ever seen. It’s yer choice. Ya have until tomorrow to decide.”
Walt’s hazel eyes shone with fury as he glared at the other men. He got up from his chair and strode quickly from the room. He was met in the kitchen by Luther’s wife, Madge.
“Mr. Gaines, please let me speak to Luther. I’ve begged him to stop all this nonsense. I’ll try again,” she said.
Walt steeled himself against the sympathy he felt for her and Luther’s children. He had a duty to do what was in Wheels’ best interest and he couldn’t let his pity for Luther’s family get in the way of that.
“Mrs. Kingsley, I hope yer successful. Good day.”
“Wait!” Luther hollered. “Wait a second, Walt!”
Walt smiled internally but kept a stern expression on his face as he returned to the parlor.
“What?”
Luther glanced at Gabe and said, “If Wheels will make it three thousand, I’ll drop the lawsuit.”
“I’ll take yer offer to Wheels, but don’t be surprised if he says no.”
Luther said, “Call him right now. Then we can settle it.”
Walt said, “I’ll speak to him in private and call ya. Besides, I’d hafta change the settlement agreement anyway.”
Scratching the back of his neck, Luther said, “Fine. See what you can do.”
Walt gave him a curt nod and then left, heading for Wheels’ place.
Wheels tapped his pencil against his design table, thinking about Luther’s proposal. Walt
had stopped by that afternoon to tell him about it. Ollie jumped up on Wheels’ lap, snatched Wheels’ pencil from his fingers, and leaped away again before Wheels could catch him.
“You little varmint,” Wheels said, laughing. “You have your own pencils.”
Ollie climbed the pegs that had purposely been hung on the wall for him. They led up to a narrow, wooden track that circled the room. Ollie chattered and grunted as he ran along the track. Then he stopped above Wheels, put the pencil in his mouth, and swung down, hanging onto the track.
Wheels laughed and tugged his tail a little. “Bring that here. Bring pencil.”
Ollie dropped onto Wheels’ shoulder and handed the pencil to him.
“Good job.”
Ollie grunted and inserted his hand down Wheels’ shirt.
“You’re not gonna find any wasna down there,” Wheels told him.
His doorbell rang, and Ollie sprang away, running out of the room as he grunted excitedly. Wheels followed him and ordered him to stay back while he opened the door.
“Nora,” he said. “Why didn’t you just come on in, sugar?”
Nora kissed his cheek. “I wasn’t sure if I should or not.”
“Of course, you should. My door is always open to you,” Wheels said. “You’re not company.”
“I’ll remember you said that.”
“Do that,” Wheels said. “I’ll warn you now; the kids were over for a little while and cranked Ollie up.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Ollie jumped at Nora, giving her little choice but to catch him.
“Ollie!” she scolded. “You are wound up.”
He kissed her and stuck a hand down her dress bodice.
“Ollie!” Wheels shouted. “Bad! Shame on you!”
Nora had pulled the monkey’s hand back out quickly, but even though she blushed, she still found it funny. However, she didn’t interfere with Wheels’ discipline.
“I’m sorry about that,” Wheels said. “He’s looking for wasna. He just did the same thing to me.”
The idea of Ollie looking for wasna in her cleavage was so amusing that Nora couldn’t hold her laughter at bay. She bit her lip, trying to hold onto her composure, but it was hopeless.
She surprised Wheels when she giggled and then laughed harder.
“I’m sorry, but it’s not every day that you have a monkey stick his hand down your dress,” she said, even as she shook with laughter.
Wheels chuckled. “I’m glad you’re not mad. Not everyone would find that funny.”
“Well, not everyone knows that Ollie’s innocent and doesn’t know that that’s not proper. But sometimes improper things are funny,” she said.
“I know all about that, trust me,” Wheels said. “If I hadn’t made fun of things that were actually sad or embarrassing, I would’ve gone insane. Humor isn’t only the best medicine, it’s the best defense.”
Nora put a hand on his shoulder. “It certainly worked. You have one of the best senses of humor I’ve ever seen.”
“Thanks. You want a drink? Something to eat? Mama brought over an apple crisp earlier,” he said.
“Thanks, but I’m still full from supper,” she replied. “What were you up to?”
“Just fiddling around with an idea I had.” He got a beer out of the ice box. “Sure you don’t want one?”
“No, thank you.”
“Okay. Walt came over today,” he said, going into the parlor.
“Oh? What did he have to say?”
Nora sat on the sofa and Wheels shifted over to sit beside her. Ollie settled on the arm of the sofa, gazing longingly at Wheels’ beer.
“Luther said he’ll drop the lawsuit if I give him three thousand.”
“But you only have two thousand.”
Wheels took a swig of beer. “Yeah. I could borrow the rest from my folks, but I hate to ask them for it. It’s my own actions that got me in this mess, not theirs. I should get myself out of it. There are some things I can sell, but probably not all that quickly.”
“You shouldn’t have to pay him anything,” Nora said, taking Wheels’ beer from him.
Wheels watched her take a sip. “I thought you didn’t want one?”
“Not a whole one.” She handed it back.
He smiled. “Sharing one is fine with me. I just feel bad for his family. If it was only him, I wouldn’t give him a dime. I’d let it go to court. But he’s got a wife and kids, you know? I don’t know what to do.”
Nora patted his leg. “I think you should ask them for it. You know they’ll help you.”
Wheels couldn’t feel her hand on his thigh, but he liked the sight of it there. “I know, but they’ve done so much for me that I hate to ask. All my medical care was expensive, and I don’t want to keep costing them money.”
“You’ll pay them back. You’re a hard worker and you’re in high demand,” Nora said.
“True on both counts. I’ve always been that way. I get that from Mama and Daddy. I also worked hard to develop skills that made me valuable even though I can’t walk,” he said.
“You’re a lot more skilled than many men who can walk, Wheels. Don’t you forget that,” Nora said.
By this point, she’d drank about half of his beer. Wheels took a few big swigs and then handed the nearly empty bottle to Ollie, who eagerly drank the rest of it. It was obvious that Nora wasn’t a big drinker. Even with only drinking half a beer, her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were a little too bright.
“I won’t forget it.”
“How come you don’t have a piano at home?” Nora asked. “You’re such a wonderful player.”
“I used to, but I spent so much time in the house that Daddy took it away from me shortly after we moved here.”
“Took it away from you?”
“Yeah. I was convinced that my life was over,” Wheels said. “I won’t lie to you. There were times when I wished I’d died. I wasn’t even half the man I’d been, and I couldn’t imagine that I’d ever have a good life. I thought I’d just spend the rest of my life sitting in a house, watching everyone else be happy.
“Daddy was hell bent on proving me wrong and he kept encouraging me to try to do things. I didn’t want to do anything, though. I didn’t want to go out or socialize. Then we moved up here and he and Mama got real tough with me.”
Nora leaned against him. “How so?”
“Well, they bought this property specifically because it had this carriage house. They fixed it up, put in a special bathroom, made other modifications to the place, and stuck me out here,” Wheels said.
Nora stared at him. “They didn’t.”
“They did. I had to sink or swim. They helped me with things, but they didn’t coddle me. I learned a lot of things by trial and error. It might sound cruel, but it was the best thing they could’ve ever done for me. I might not have been able to walk, but I still had full use of my arms and my upper body. I also still had my mind.”
“I loved being in the army and one of my favorite things to do was to come up with battle plans and figure out how weapons could be used the most effectively. I started applying that logic to my new life situation. How could I do something almost as well as if I could walk?
“How could I make something a little easier? How strong could I make myself? Could I help my body recover any more function than the doctors think I will? I started challenging myself at every turn and using what I had left, which was a hell of a lot compared to a many people in my situation.”
Nora said, “You’re an amazing man, Wheels.”
“Thanks.”
“I love hearing all this, but what does it have to do with Vern taking away your piano?”
Wheels chuckled. “I got off track. Sorry. Daddy took it away so that I had to leave the house if I wanted to play it. I met Brock and Aaron when Carl and Daddy made me go to Benny’s one night. Daddy gave my piano to Benny. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it there. I was mad enough to spit nails. He hadn’t told me where he’d taken it.”
Nora pulled back to look at him. “The piano at Benny’s is yours?”
“Yeah. I cussed Daddy out right there in front of everyone for giving it to Benny.”
She laughed. “What did Vern do?”
Wheels grinned. “Waited until I was done and said, ‘Well, now, if you’re feeling better after all that, you might as well play since you’re here.’ I wanted to kill him but playing was more important than yelling at him more since I’d missed it so much. When Brock and Aaron heard me, they started playing along and the rest is history.”
“So that’s how you became friends,” Nora said. “They said that they met you at Benny’s, but they never told me that story.”
Wheels said, “Well, now you know. They probably didn’t want you to know what an angry man I was back then. I was mad at everything and everyone. I was hard to live with for a little while.”
Nora said, “You never acted like that around me.”
“Well, you weren’t around me all that much. I didn’t start coming over to your house until we’d been here for about a year. I wasn’t angry by then, so I was a lot more fun to be around,” Wheels said. “You were such a cute little thing. I had to work hard to get you to say more than a few words at a time to me.”
Nora blushed. “Stop it.”
Wheels put his arm around her and kissed her cheek. “You’re not so shy anymore, though. You take my cookies when you’re mad at me and drink my beer, too.”
She pushed against his chest as she giggled, but his arm only tightened, preventing her from escaping. Struggling further only resulted in him encircling her with both arms, holding her firmly in place.
“I couldn’t help it. I’ve always been shy around men.”