Heated, page 5
Most times she hated the feel of the men’s hands and the sounds of their grunting as they pumped away between her cold thighs, but sometimes—every once in a while—a man’s hands would warm her, soothe her, and make her feel wanted for the first time in a long time.
It didn’t matter if they didn’t have the decency to buy a nice hotel room to fill her with their desire. They would park deep in the woods in their cars and whisper heated words of her beauty in the back seat. Only to ignore her in the light of day.
But that was behind her now.
“How are you today, Mrs. King?”
Trishon looked up surprised by the saleswoman’s voice behind her. She smiled, pushing away her memories. “I’m fine, just fine,” she said.
Yes, she was Mrs. Hank King, and the days of hunger, shame, poverty, and pity were long behind her.
4
Sunday afternoon after fighting her way though Tri-shon’s dinner of meatloaf with a cornflake crust and mash potatoes—with the skin—Bianca turned her Volvo down the drive leading to Circle S Ranch. Finding the ranch hadn’t been a problem because Kahron had purchased the old MacDonald Farm and Bianca had spent many a lazy afternoon playing on the ranch with her then-childhood friend Sara.
It was obvious to see the improvements Kahron made, having grown up on a ranch and working on ranches as a vet. Bianca had to admit she was impressed.
But she wasn’t there to survey the land.
Bianca pulled in front of the house. Kahron was leaning against the back of a pick-up truck talking to a tall, slender guy with a short ’fro. They both looked up as she slowed her vehicle.
Kahron’s eyes were shaded by his ever-present aviator shades, but Bianca knew he was looking at her. Her pulse raced as she came to a stop beside them.
“Are you behind the sabotage of my father’s business?” she asked, cutting to the chase.
Kahron stared at her for a long time and she wondered what he was thinking.
“I didn’t know there was any sabotage going on,” he told her, turning his head back to the ranch hand he was talking with. “Excuse me for a sec, Dante.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
Kahron walked toward her car. “How are you today, Bianca? “he asked in a calm manner as he placed his hands on the door and leaned down a bit to stare at her.
Bianca felt overwhelmed by his presence, but she had to remind herself that this man might be trying to ruin her father’s business—what little business there was left. Visions of riding him naked and wild astride a horse just weren’t appropriate—no matter how enticing.
“I’d be doing a whole lot better if you’d leave my father the hell alone,” she told him, forcing a coldness to her tone that she honestly didn’t feel.
Kahron’s jaw tightened and although she couldn’t see those eyes, she could easily imagine them filled with irritation or even anger.
He opened her car door and then stepped back to wave his hand toward the house in some misguided attempt at an invitation to take the conversation inside.
Bianca looked up him, indignant at his forwardness. She leaned over in her seat to close the door back. “When you take over paying the car note then you can run this,” she told him with spunk, just before it slammed close.
“Why all this anger? Where’s the lady I was talking to last night? What’s your problem, beside the fact that your obviously bull-headed like your daddy,” Kahron told her.
Bianca let the bull-headed comment slide… for now. “My problem is someone trying to ruin my father, that’s what,” she told him.
“So I guess I forced your father to drink his life away,” he bit out.
The truth cut like a knife, but Bianca blinked away any show that his words hit home. Instead she flung the car door open.
“Umph.”
The door had hit against Kahron’s legs and Bianca got pleasure from that.
Kahron frowned deeply.
Take that. Bianca faced him and then waved her hand toward the stairs leading into his house. “Whenever you’re ready,” she said, as he continued to stare at her through those shades she wanted to snatch off his face and stomp on.
Kahron used his knee to nudge the car door until it swung close, before he led the way up the stairs. When he got to the door he stepped aside. “My office is the first door on the right,” he said in a low and intimate voice near her ear as she breezed past him to enter the foyer. “Be back in a sec, Dante.”
“Okay, boss.”
Bianca shook off the shiver of awareness he caused. Her eyes quickly took in as much of his home as she could as she walked to his office. Everything was in warm, masculine tones with clean lines and for some reason that surprised her.
It was then—for the first time—that she wondered if he was married. Was there a Mrs. Kahron to stroke her fingers across that hellified body?
Good time to ask, Bianca thought as she recalled her dream.
“My father’s business isn’t for sale,” Bianca said as she entered the room. “No matter what.”
She turned to face him as he strode in behind her, but her eyes and lips rounded in surprise when he pushed his shades atop his head and didn’t stop moving forward until he was standing in front her and clasping her face with his calloused hands.
Thump-thump.
That was the double-beat of her heart.
Bianca stepped back and Kahron stepped forward, his hands still there on her cheeks—warm and enticing.
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
“What are you doing?” she asked, as she tried to step back from him.
“What I wanted to do since I first laid eyes on you, B,” Kahron whispered softly, the pressure of his cool breath against her lips increasing as his head lowered to hers.
She gasped and her mouth filled with his breath just as his lips pressed down upon hers. Jesus, she thought, before a sweet moan of nothing but pure pleasure escaped from the back of her throat.
Thump–thump–thump–thump–thump…
Kahron lightened the pressure of his hands when he felt no resistance, but he deepened the kiss, lightly tracing her full, plump lips before his tongue eased inside to circle her own.
Thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump…
Bianca shifted her head from the right to the left as Kahron began to lightly suckle the tip of her tongue. Oh, see that… now that feels good. She lifted her hands to lightly grasp his sides, vaguely taking in the hard ripples of his abdomen beneath her clinging fingers.
She became aware of a movement down her abdomen, stopping at the top of her thigh. Pressure. Hardness. Length. Thickness. Trouble. Bianca’s eyes widened in shock and… well, fascination. Oh My God, is all that his…
Thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump–thump…
Bianca used her teeth to clamp down lightly on that wily tongue of his, even as the bud between her legs throbbed with a beat all its own.
Kahron’s eyes opened as he stared down at her in surprise.
Their eyes locked.
Hers were defiant.
His amused.
She released him and stepped away from him. “I’d advise you to keep it to yourself in the future,” she warned him, crossing her arms over her chest to help put pressure on her aching and taut nipples.
“Now why would I do that when you seemed to be enjoying it so much?” he teased, moving to sit at his desk.
“Woulda been better if you had a Tic-Tac,” she lied.
Kahron just threw his head back and laughed.
She stared at him with her finely arched brow raised. In truth she was more angry at herself than him. Her intention was to give him a piece of her mind… not her tail!
“Why do you want my father’s ranch so bad?” she asked.
“I want the land,” he answered simply.
“How far will you go to get it?” she returned, as she stepped closer to his desk and stared down at him. “There’s a burnt barn I’m curious about,” she said, even though she wasn’t one hundred percent sure the barn had been vandalized.
Kahron tilted his head up to look at her. “The authorities say it was an accident. Word on the street is your father probably did it for the insurance.”
She didn’t bother to tell him her father didn’t even have property insurance on the barn.
“What you fail to understand—no matter how many times I tell you—your father doesn’t need help ruining his business,” he said, rising from his chair.
Bianca eyes darted to his lips and she hated herself for it. “Since you know so much about the ‘word on the street,’ make sure you get the word out that King Equine Service isn’t for sale. If I find out who the a-hole is with the spare time on his hands to harass my father, I’ll make sure they’ll regret it, and that includes you, Kahron,” she told him in steely tones she was proud of, before turning to leave him and the odd chemistry they made in the room.
“Bianca,” he called out to her.
Moments later a warm hand circled her forearm.
Bianca whirled around, her face confused.
Kahron let his hand rise to lightly hold her chin. “I promise you I haven’t done anything to sabotage your father’s business,” he told her huskily, his eyes measuring hers.
Bianca’s eyes searched his.
“Let me take you to dinner?” he asked in that sexy and raspy voice of his.
Acute awareness shimmied over Bianca and she wondered what drew her to this man. She tilted her head back to free his hand from her chin. “I don’t think so,” she answered, turning and walking out the house.
Kahron stood to one of the windows lining the front wall of his office. He watched as Bianca walked to her car. She paused, turned, and started back toward the house. His heart stopped. She turned again, walked back to her car and got in, eventually driving off. He stood there until she turned the car down the long dirt road leading to the main highway.
Bianca spent the rest of the day trying to come up with a plan to save the ranch. It was about more than money. She could just float the cash into the business to keep it going, but if her father’s reputation was destroyed and people didn’t trust him to get the job done, then the money was useless.
She rose from where she sat on the top step of the porch to lean against the rail. She crossed her arms over her chest as she listened to the sounds of a sweet summer Carolina night.
There was so much that needed to be done and certainly more than she could do in two weeks—and that included making sure her father got sober.
How she could expect his old clients to have renewed faith in him when she had none?
“Oh, Daddy,” she said with a heavy release of breath.
Throwing the bottle of liquor in the fireplace had been a grand and dramatic gesture, but it didn’t really guarantee that he would never drink again.
Her father’s sobriety. Repairing the barn. Ordering inventory. Recruiting new business. Trying to woo back old business. Hiring staff. Trishon’s spending. And, oh Lord, Trishon’s cooking.
One was bad enough, but all of them combined was going to send her to Charter, the mental hospital in Columbia.
And that’s if her growing infatuation with Kahron Strong didn’t jack her up first.
“Whoo,” Bianca sighed, her eyes slowly closing as she remembered the taste of the man. His scent. His touch. His hardness.
Impressive hardly seemed the right word to describe it.
I promise you I haven’t done anything to sabotage your father’s business.
Bianca was usually a good judge of character and her first impression of Kahron had not made her think he was untrustworthy, deceptive, or criminal-minded. Her father thought he was behind the fire and the man admitted he wanted the land, but then, how reliable was her father’s opinion?
Had the fire department been wrong in their assessment of the fire’s cause? What of the other pranks? They seemed mild in comparison to burning a barn.
It just made sense that Kahron would be the one to benefit most from Hank being in a situation where he had to sell his business.
I promise you I haven’t done anything to sabotage your father’s business.
“Oh, hi Bianca. I didn’t know you were out here.”
She turned to find Trishon stepping out onto the porch, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter in her hand. Bianca hated smoking and certainly didn’t want to intake second-hand smoke, but she remained quiet. “Just getting some air.”
Trishon just nodded and moved to lean forward against the railing as she exhaled a long and thin line of silver smoke.
“Do you know Kahron Strong very well?” Bianca asked, curious about the man.
Trishon tilted her head a little to look at Bianca as she placed the cigarette back between her lips. “Well enough I guess. Why?”
Bianca shrugged, turning her head back to look ahead at the shadow of the treetops against the night sky. “Daddy thinks he’s behind the fire,” she said.
“From what I hear he wants the land bad enough.”
“Yes, but the authorities said it was the wiring,” Bianca insisted, not sure if she was trying convince Trishon or herself.
“Like they can’t be wrong.”
“Outside of that, though, you ever heard anything bad about him?” Bianca asked.
“Aw hell, he ain’t no saint, Bianca,” Trishon spouted, flicking her cigarette to send the ashes circling into the night air.
Bianca leveled her eyes on the woman and fell silent.
“He’s a heartbreaker, too. That’s one dog I’d stay clear of if I was you,” Trishon added, as she raised her hand to cover the next cigarette she was lighting.
“I can lookout for myself, but thanks.”
Another stream of smoke. “Poor Shauna cries behind his cheatin’ ass all the time.”
Bianca felt her stomach drop—if that was at all possible. Who in the hell was Shauna?
“That’s his girlfriend,” Trishon answered, as if reading Bianca’s thoughts.
“That man’s personal business is of no concern to me,” Bianca added, even though she felt oddly betrayed by the news.
It was Trishon’s turn to fall silent.
“Daddy sleeping?”
Trishon tilted her head back to blow smoke rings through her pursed scarlet lips. “He’s watching one of them cowboy movies he loves so much.”
Bianca smiled softly. “He loves John Wayne, of all things.”
The women fell silent again and nothing but the sound of night creatures filled the air.
“I love your father, Bianca.”
Bianca bit her bottom lip, her eyes narrowing as she stared off in the distance. “That’s good to know,” was all she said.
“And he loves me.”
Bianca felt the woman’s eyes on her so she fought not to roll her own eyes heavenward. “Trishon—”
“I know the reason you haven’t been home all these years is ’cause of me,” she said, dropping the cigarette to flatten beneath her shoe.
“That’s a piece of it, yes,” Bianca admitted, turning to face her.
“I know what people say about me in this town, but it was hard growing up the way I did.” Trishon’s eyes filled with angry tears. “And I made a lot of mistakes, but that’s in the past. Don’t hold my past against me, Bianca King.”
Bianca knew what she said was true. Everyone in town knew the story of Ruby Haddock and her kids. It was no secret how they struggled to survive. How horribly they used to be either teased in their faces or talked about behind their backs.
Yes, she could see how a woman like Trishon had been looking for love in all the wrong places.
“We don’t have to be friends, but don’t judge me,” Trishon said, turning to walk back in the house.
Didn’t she have enough drama on her plate?
Needing a diversion, Bianca bent to scoop her cell phone up from the porch. Quickly she dialed.
The line rang for what seemed a million times.
“Whoever this is you owe me a stiff one, sugar. And that’s a drink if you’re a lady and a lay from the fellas.”
Bianca smiled at the sound of Mimi’s nasal voice. “How’s Atlanta, Ms. Mimi?”
“Hey, honey. How’s Hootersville?” Mimi squealed.
“That’s Holtsville.”
“Yeah… sure, Sweetie, like it really matters.”
You had to know Mimi—really know her—not be offended.
“How’s my house?” Bianca asked.
“Smaller than mine, sugar.” Mimi laughed like that was the funniest thing she ever heard. “I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Its fine.”
“Good.”
“Hey, you, what’s wrong? You sound like a fag who lost his bag of balls.”
“Just a lot to do down here. My father needs me—”
“And you love that he needs you, don’t you, Sweetie?” Mimi asked softly in a rare show of sympathy and concern.
“Better late than never.”
Suddenly the hairs on the nape of Bianca’s nape stood on end. She whirled, thinking someone had stepped out onto the porch with her. Nothing. She whirled to look at the sides of the house. The yard was empty. Not a sole to be seen.
But Bianca felt like she was being watched.
Slowly, she looked around at her surroundings again, her body stiff—as if that made her hearing better.
“Bianca, you there? If I wanted to listen to dead silence I would stayed married to Arnold, Sweetie.”
Calm down, Bianca, she admonished herself, relaxing her stance.
“I’m here, just felt creepy all of a sudden. Just… I don’t know, like somebody’s watching me.”
“Now I know you’re stressed, you’re quoting Rapwell, darling.”
Bianca actually smiled. “Don’t you mean, Rockwell?”
“Yeah, whoever.”
When she turned suddenly to look around her, he stepped back under the cloak of the bushes. His heart raced as he licked the growing perspiration from his upper lip.
