Heated (5 page)

“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.

He stood in the bushes and watched her as she talked on her cell phone. Under the light from the porch he saw the uneasiness disappear from her face.

Suddenly she flung her head back and laughed.

His eyes narrowed.

He knew he should leave, but he stood there and watched her until she walked into the house.

Trishon slipped her nude frame between the sheets beside her husband. Reaching across him, her plush breasts pressed into his side as she picked up the remote and turned off the television.

“Huh, what… I’m not sleeping,” Hank said, lifting his head from his pillow as he wiped the back of his large hand across his mouth.

“Ssshhh.”

“I been meaning to talk you,” he began. “I need you to cut back on your spending until I get my business back on its feet.”

Under the cloak of darkness, she cuddled close to his side. “Oh, Teddy Bear, I don’t spend that much, do I?” she asked.

“Right now its more than I have to spend.”

“Are these your words or your daughter’s?” she asked gingerly.

“Don’t bring Bianca into this,” he returned sternly, his hand stopping her from caressing his stirring arousal.

Trishon backed off the subject… for now.

5

“How in the hell am I supposed to get everything done in two weeks?” Bianca asked herself as she put her chin in her hand and looked out the window of the study. She ignored the accordion folder of her father’s important papers she had been reviewing.

Her plans to shoot down to Holtsville and save the day were getting waylaid by reality. The cost of this adventure was building if Bianca carried through with her plans to revitalize the business—plans that included the same PR blitz and business savvy she used to make her clinic the success it was. They discussed replacing the destroyed barn with a prefab metal barn, but the cost was nothing to play with. That plus the cost of restocking the ranch—all without knowing if their clients would return—was a hell of a gamble.

Bianca did think it could be done. It was all a matter of rebuilding faith.

Bianca massaged her own neck as she thought of her clinic. She missed the horses and other animals she loved so much most of all, but rebuilding King Equine Service presented something to her that the clinic hadn’t
been for a long time… a challenge.

She could extend her stay until her father and the ranch were back on their feet, and maybe travel home on the weekends. But how much time could she afford to take away from her own life and business back in Atlanta? Decisions had to be made and soon because Bianca refused to see the family business ruined.

She needed a diversion so she moved to the small radio in the corner and sped through the channels until she found a hip-hop station, Z93 Jamz. As Keyshia Cole’s “I Should Have Cheated” played Bianca danced to the center of the study and starting singing along with the music in her biggest voice.

Bianca was just taking it back to the old school with the cabbage patch dance when she turned and saw Kahron leaning in the doorway watching her. She froze mid–cabbage patch.

He smiled and dropped his head as he uncrossed his arms and pushed off the doorframe to walk into the room. “Don’t let me interrupt you,” he told her.

Bianca cleared her throat and patted her straw set curls as she moved over to the radio to turn Keyshia off. “Don’t you knock?” she asked as she moved over to reclaim her seat behind the desk, shoved the papers back into the accordion folder, and put the folder in the bottom desk drawer.

“I did, you were busy, and I saw you were in here through the window, so…”

Bianca eyes took him—drew him in—and she had no complaints. The white T-shirt he wore was snug and fit against his chest, so beautifully offset by the bronze of his skin. His jeans hung lower than ever on his narrow hips below a big rodeo-style belt buckle. “What can I
help you with?”

He smiled. Slow and cocky, devilish and confident.

Bianca had to bite her inner cheek to keep from returning the rogue’s grin. She gave him a nonchalant look instead.

“Actually, I wanted to talk you and your father, if he’s around,” Kahron said, stepping forward.

“So, this is business—”

“Oh we can
make
it pleasure,” he interrupted easily as his eyes dipped to her lips.

“What would Shauna say?” Bianca asked, wishing as soon as she said the words that she could inhale them back.

Kahron moved to prop himself on the edge of the desk as he looked down at Bianca. “I don’t know what she would say, but I’m sure whatever it is she would say it to her boyfriend.”

Bianca felt the heat radiate from his body like a warm touch, teasing her nipples into tautness and lightly stroking the bud between her legs until it throbbed with a pulse all its own. She crossed her legs. “Either way its none of my business, Kahron.”

“It could be,” he returned huskily.

Bianca’s chest felt light as air at that.

“No.”

Kahron nodded as he reached down to pick up her hand. “Yes.”

“
No
,” Bianca stressed, pulling her hand away from his heated grasp as she leaned back in the chair.

Kahron rose and moved around the desk.

Bianca swallowed hard and pushed back with her feet until the chair hit the wall with a solid
thump
.

He bent over and placed one hand on each of the arm
rests of the chair.

Bianca, this man may be trying to ruin your father.
He can’t be trusted
.

Deep down, however, Bianca didn’t believe it.

“Can I kiss you again?” he asked low in his throat as he lowered his handsome square face just inches above hers.

Bianca slowly moved her head from side to side.

He lowered his head anyway until the subtle in and out of his breathing softly whispered against her lips. Her nose nearly touched his and she could see how long and full each individual eyelash was. And his lips. They were lips made to kiss and be kissed… by her.

Just one taste
.

It was Bianca that closed the minute distance between their lips with a simple raising of her chin. His eyes closed and those lashes fanned against his strong cheekbones as he deepened the kiss from her simple peck to his passionate torture.

They both moaned at the feel of their tongues gently circling one another as their lips pressed together. When Kahron lightly bit her bottom lip before sucking it gently, Bianca felt she could—and would—come right then.

“Bianca!”

Her eyes widened at the sound of her father yelling her name.
Damn, is he psychic
? She twisted to the left to free her lips, toppling out of the chair. She had just scrambled to her feet and moved to stand by the radio when her father’s bearlike presence filled the doorway of the study.

Kahron just rose slowly.

“What is
he
doing here?” Hank snapped, his eyes narrowing as he leveled them on Kahron.

Uh-oh.
Bianca was not in the mood to referee. “Have a seat, Daddy,” Bianca said in a tone that made it seem the most simple request in the world. She looked at Kahron as she waved her hand toward one of the chairs in front of the desk and she took the other.

Maybe if she stayed calm her father would as well. Bianca literally crossed her fingers.

Kahron moved to take the seat next to Bianca.

“I don’t know what this about, but I don’t like it one damn bit,” Hank bit out, even though he did as Bianca bid and moved to take the seat behind the desk. It didn’t stop him from glaring at Kahron like he was a pile of manure on his new boots.

“Okay, Mr. Strong, you wanted to talk to us,” Bianca began, as if she hadn’t just suckled the faint taste of bubble gum from his lips and tongue.

Kahron looked at her with a lazy smile before he turned his head to look Hank King in the eye—man to man. “First, I want to clear the air about your belief that I’ve been trying to ruin your business,” Kahron began.

Hank banged his fist on top of the desk, before he pointed a beefy finger at Kahron as he leaned forward in the chair. “Liar,” he roared.

“No, I’m not a liar, and you know that Hank,” Kahron returned calmly. “Before I made the offer to buy the ranch you and I got along well. And you know I’m a man of my word. I value my integrity. I’ve always dealt with every man fairly.”

Bianca’s eyes flittered about his face looking for a hint of deception.

“Greed has made many a man dirty in his deeds.” Hank reached into his shirt pocket and removed a pack of cigarettes.

“There’s nothing else I can say to make you believe
me,” Kahron said. “But my offer to buy still stands.”

Bianca’s doubts returned. The man was determined to get his hands on the land. She wondered if he was determined enough to trifle with her feelings for it.

“Well it ain’t for sale you little hard-headed shit,” Hank said, his cigarette hanging precariously from his bottom lip.

“I know King Equine Services looks pretty washed up to you right now, but my father and I have every intention of revitalizing this business,” Bianca began, her voice firm as she met his stare. “Now, your unwillingness to accept the fact that this is a new era for this business… your determination in purchasing this land although you have been told on many occasions that it isn’t for sale… makes me wonder to what end are you willing to go to make it for sale.”

“Exactly,” Hank chimed in.

“Bianca, you don’t believe that,” Kahron said in a voice that seemed sad or disappointed.

“Then let it go,” she stressed to him softly as she met his gaze.

Kahron stood. “I won’t make the offer again, but I will be honest. If the opportunity arises I will own this ranch.”

Bianca was surprised by the pang of hurt she felt. “Thanks for the faith,” she said bitterly.

“It’s not you that I don’t have the faith in, Bianca.”

“Get out, Strong,” Hank roared, rising to his feet so forcefully that the chair rolled back and slammed against the wall.

Kahron looked at Bianca one last time before he walked out the study.

“Can you believe his nerve?”

Bianca crossed her legs. “Before he wanted to buy the ranch would you say he was a honest man?” she asked.

“Wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Bianca rose and picked up the notepad with the things she needed to order from her father’s supplier. “You better look over this list and see if I left anything out,” she said, forcing normalcy to her voice.

Hank reached into the top drawer of the desk and removed his reading glasses. “We don’t need a new pressure washer. Papa Doc has mine and I can just get it back from him.” Hank said before using a pencil to cross it off the list.

“How’s he doing?” Bianca asked of her father’s childhood best friend, glad for the diversion.

“Same-o–same-o,” Hank said, as he continued to scroll down the list.

“Did you talk to Trishon?” she asked, as she tilted her head to look down at the changes he was making on the list.

“Uh-huh.”

Bianca nodded and she took a little breath before she asked her next question. “And how are you doing?”

Hank looked up at her in confusion. “I’m fit as fiddle, Bunny.”

“That’s not what I mean,” she told him in total seriousness.

Hank looked back down at the list. “One day at a time, baby girl. So far so good.”

Kahron grimaced as he lowered his nude muscular frame beneath the steaming depths of the water in his oversized claw-foot tub. With a deep moan of contentment he slid down beneath the water until his head
rested back against the rim.

He heard Hershey’s nail click-click against the floor and looked over at the door just as she nudged it open with her head and entered. She came to sit beside the tub. “Hey, girl. You missed me today?” he asked.

She snorted.

After he returned from the King’s he rode Midnight out to the south range, where the men were repairing the water pipes. Long, hard, but very satisfying work.

His body deserved this treat.

It also deserved a good hot meal, and because he had yet to find any new prospects for a housekeeper he would have to throw something together for himself. Just like he washed his clothes and cleaned his own house.

He didn’t mind the house chores, but after a long day working the ranch he wanted just to come home and sleep in preparation for the next long day. His father told him he needed a wife, but Kahron was reluctant. He respected the institution of marriage far too much to grab the first eligible bachelorette willing to be his maid.

Suddenly, a vision of Bianca smiling up at him teased him in the steam rising from the tub. She was sexy as all get out, not classically beautiful like Halle Berry or Vivica Fox, but intriguing and beguiling nonetheless.

And she had the most incredible lips. Kissing them was like pressing your lips to the softest clouds. Amazing how the feel of something so soft could make a man so hard: lips, breasts, thighs, and buttocks.

He found himself thinking of Bianca quite a bit, but in truth he really knew nothing about her. The fact that he always let his hormones overrule his head might be the reason for that. When he was in her presence he had to learn to cool his heels—along with other parts of the
anatomy—so he might have an actual conversation with the woman and not just give in to the desire to kiss her.

He smiled at the memory of Bianca actually kissing him first today. Lord, that woman knew how to work her tongue.

He felt a cool breeze against the juicy tip of his penis and cocked open one eye to see it standing up erect from between his strong thighs. “Down boy,” he said, even as his hands moved to massage the full, thick length of it.

He wanted to know Bianca. He wanted to see more of that side of her where she let loose and just had fun—like when he caught her dancing all alone today.

He also wanted to bury his shaft so deeply inside of her that he felt lost. This was the side of him that seemed to win out whenever he was in her presence.

Maybe, just maybe, if he learned to close the door on that side of his brain—and his penis—that belonged to the horny adolescent in him, he might actually get to know her better. Something he honestly wanted to do.

There was so many things he wanted to know about.

Was she really a big time horse vet back in Atlanta? Was she dating anyone back home—he couldn’t believe at least a few hard heads weren’t sniffing around her skirts. Why did it take her so long to return home? How long was she staying in town?

Word on the street—which was like the gospel to small town southern folk—was just two weeks.

In terms of him romancing her that was a downer. If he succeeded in getting her to spend time with him, what would they do when she returned home?

In terms of him getting his hands on that ranch, it was a plus. Kahron had no doubts that Bianca could completely get the business back up and running, but as
soon as Hank King was back in charge, the man would surely run it in the ground again. At the first hint of delinquent taxes and the land going up for auction by the county, Kahron had every intention of being the one to outbid anyone else for ownership.

Kahron relaxed his body in the water hoping the tightness in his groin would ease, but whenever he cocked open a eye to check, the thick tip of his erection poked through the water to wink back at him. He tried to think neutral thoughts, but everything led back to Bianca.