Hot Like Fire (27 page)

Several times Garcelle had chanced a look at
Kade, only to find his eyes already resting on her.
They would both look away.

Garcelle envisioned that it was she who was standing at the altar, in a chic satin gown, with Kade, in
his tux, and that they vowed to love one another
until the end of time.

But that would never be. They would never be.

Coming here was a mistake.

Etta's singing of love at last grew louder, until her
voice echoed inside the tent. Hank bent down to
kiss his bride, and Garcelle rose from her seat and
fled from the tent and the visions of a life she would
never have.

Kade squatted down by the three-foot marble
headstone of his wife. He used his hand to brush
away the few leaves covering her grave.

"I miss you a lot, you know," he said, shifting to
sit on the ground. "I guess you do know that. You
probably can see everything going on down here."
He licked his lips as the winds picked up. "So I
guess you probably know about Garcelle."

He smiled at the thought of Garcelle. "You would
like her. She's funny and smart and full of life, and
... and ... she made ... makes me happy, Reema,"
he admitted. "But I guess you probably know that,
too," he said, with a laugh.

"She's so good with Kadina, and she talks about
you all the time with her, and she would help me
raise Kadina to be just the type of woman you
would want her to be."

He looked around as the limbs of the trees
swayed from side to side.

Seeing Garcelle at the wedding last week had brought it home that she, too, meant a lot to him.
When he looked up after the wedding ceremony to
find she was gone, he knew that the ceremony had
touched her as well. He knew that she loved him still.

I'm here living and breathing and loving you, but I'm
not about to fight with a ghost....

"I don't want you to think that I will ever forget
you or stop loving you ... because I won't, but I
love Garcelle," he admitted, blinking away tears as
he cleared his throat. "I really love her, and I just
don't want you to think that my loving her takes
away from anything we shared together."

The winds whipped around him, and he felt comforted.

"Reema, it's time for me to move on, and I know
now that you would want that for me." He rose to
his feet with ease and brushed the dirt from his
pants. "I will never forget you. I promise you that."

"Good night, Donnie," Garcelle called out to the
gruff owner as she walked out the front door of the
restaurant. She pulled her print sweater cap on
before she searched in her purse for her keys.

"Garcelle."

She looked up. Kade stood there, leaning against
his car and holding a large bouquet of roses. His
usual Dickies uniform was gone, replaced by a black
suit and an open black shirt, worn under a crisp tailored wool coat that made him devastatingly handsome. She felt surprised, pleased, and confused by
his presence. "Hello, Kade," she said, feeling awkward in his presence. It had been a week since the
wedding. She had just gotten her equilibrium back,
and here he was, throwing her off again.

He pushed off the vehicle and walked over to
her. The cold wind blew around them, and the
scent of his cologne reached her as he held the
bouquet out to her. "For you."

Garcelle bit her bottom lip as she accepted it.
Their hands touched briefly, and there was still
nothing but sparks. "What's going on? What's this
all about?"

He reached up and lightly touched her chin. "It's
about me being happy, and you make me happy.
The last two months have been hell, but I'm ready
for my own little slice of heaven in your arms ...
in your life."

Garcelle closed her eyes and released a long
stream of air through pursed lips as she fought for
composure.

Kade continued. "You were right. I wasn't ready
before. I wasn't able to fully accept you being in my
life. All I knew then was that I loved you, and I
wanted you in my life. It took time for me to realize
that I need you."

Garcelle buried her face in the bouquet as she got
her thoughts and her words together. "You really
hurt me, Kade," she admitted. "I gave you distance.
I didn't push. I didn't do a Zorrie on you-"

"I know. I know. Can I show you something?" he
asked as he reached for her hand.

Her reluctance was obvious. "Kade, I don't
know...."

"Please."

"Why are you doing this to me?" Garcelle looked
into his eyes.

Kade stepped closer to her and brought one
hand up to caress the side of her face and then her
nape. "Do you love me?"

"My life is fine. Why not let it be, Kade?"

"Do ... you ... love ... me?"

Garcelle let her head fall back as he continued to
massage her neck. "Kade..

He used his hand to turn her head so that their
eyes locked. "Do you love me?" he whispered, his
cool breath fanning her lips.

"Yes," she admitted in a heated rush. "Yes, I love
you.

"Come on," he said, reaching for her hand and
lightly pulling her toward the SUV.

They rode in silence. Their hands were entwined
atop the console in between their seats.

"Where are we going?" she asked, still trying to
decide if she was happy or not being with the man
she loved. The same man who had hurt her.

"Home," he said simply.

Garcelle said nothing else. "Your home or my
home?" she asked.

He didn't answer her until they turned down the
road leading to his house. It appeared every room
in the house was lit up. She had to admit it was a
warm and inviting sight.

"If you think bringing me here to prove you can
have sex in your wife's house-"

"Our home," he told her as he shut the vehicle off.

"Huh?"

"You asked if I was taking you to your home or
mine, and I am saying this is our home."

He climbed out of the vehicle and left her sitting
there, more confused than ever. "Our home?" she
asked as she watched him jog up the stairs and into
the house.

Garcelle dropped her roses on the driver's seat as
she scrambled out of the vehicle and up the stairs and into the house. As soon as she crossed the
threshold, she gasped in surprise.

There was a trail of rose petals and candles in tall
vases leading down the hall and into the den.
"Kade," she called out.

"I want you to walk around the whole house first
and then meet me in the den," he called back to her.

"What?"

`Just do it."

And she did. Room by room after room. Upstairs
and downstairs. And each room she found completely devoid of furniture. No throw rugs. No curtains. No towels in the bathrooms. No beds in the
bedrooms. Nothing. There was absolutely no furniture. The house looked like it had just been purchased and was waiting for someone to turn it into
a home.

What was going on?

In Kade's bedroom, she found the same emptiness, but what really shocked her was that the large
wedding photo was gone from its spot on the wall.
She left the room and went racing down the stairs.
Once in the front hall, she followed the beautifully
lit path into the den. "I'm coming, Kade," she
called out.

"Come on," he urged.

In the center of the room, Kade was down on
one knee, surrounded by a thick bed of rose petals.
He held a ring box in his outstretched hand.

"Kade?"

"Come to me."

Garcelle hated to walk across the petals, but she
wanted to be close to him. She tiptoed until she
stood before him, with her eyes locked on his. "Kade,
this so beautiful," she sighed, her accent very heavy.

"Garcelle, I am more than ready to welcome you
into my life, my home, and my heart. I want this to
be our home so that we can share our lives together
and make our own memories. Our own babies. Our
own history. We'll start fresh. We'll decorate it together. We'll make it ours." He took a deep breath
and smiled up at her. "Will you marry me, Garcelle?"

She was touched beyond words. Her heart overflowed with love for him. She couldn't begin to explain how much all of it meant to her.

"Yes. Yes. Yes. I'll marry you. I will marry you,
Kade Strong," she said, with a soft, teasing tone, as
she bent down to kiss him firmly on the lips.

As he slid the three-carat solitaire onto her finger,
Garcelle fell to her knees before him. She grasped
his face, and they shared a dozen or more kisses
before he pressed her body down upon the plush
bed of rose petals.

They undressed one another slowly, as if to cherish every moment of their union. They sighed in
pleasure at the feel of each other's naked flesh. His
hard frame pressed against her soft curves as they explored each other's bodies. Sweat made many of the
rose petals cling to their bodies as they rolled about
and kissed and whispered words of nothing but love
and devotion for one another. And when he filled
her with his hardness, each stroke united them at a
far deeper level than the physical one. It was the
merging of two souls destined to become one.

"It's a boy! It's a boy!"

Almost everyone in the entire waiting room of
the labor and delivery wing of Colleton Medical
Center jumped to their feet and rushed Kahron,
with congratulations.

Garcelle turned to hug Kade tightly, with excitement, as she took in the rest of the family.

"Hot damn, the Strong name lives on!" Kael
Strong roared, with a pump of his fist in the air. He
pulled Lisha to him and twirled her around the
waiting room.

"Yes, but it was a King that brought him into the
world," Hank countered as he lifted his wife high in
his arms. "Ain't that right, Mimi?"

"You are always right, Big Daddy," Mimi purred in
her real voice as she rubbed his big belly. He giggled
like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Carlos stepped up to shake Kahron's hand. "Congratulations, Kahron."

"Thank you, Carlos. Thank you." Kahron's face
beamed.

Once Kade asked Carlos for his daughter's hand
in marriage, the Strongs and the Kings had pulled
the Santos clan right into their midst.

"Pay up, you two. Y'all lost," Kaleb boasted to
Kaitlyn and Kaeden, with his hand outstretched.

Kaitlyn reached in her purse and roughly pushed
the fifty-dollar bill into Kaleb's hand. "I thought
they said if she carried low, it was a girl," she grumbled good-naturedly.

"See if I listen to you and those old wives' tales
again," Kaeden told Kaityln as he counted out fifty
dollars from his wallet and handed the bills to his
brother.

Kadina left her spot in between Garcelle and
Kade and cleared her throat as she looked up at
her Uncle Kaleb. "Remember, you forgot my birthday money because you didn't have any cash on
you, Uncle Kaleb," she said as she eyed the wad in
his hand, with a toothy smile.

Garcelle, Kadina, and everyone in the room
laughed as Kaleb peeled off two ten-dollar bills to
give her. Kadina cleared her throat again, and
Kaleb peeled off a twenty.

"Happy birthday. We straight?" Kaleb asked as he
mussed Kadina's bangs.

"All the time. All the time," Kadina said as she
counted her money and walked back to her father
and future stepmother.

She handed the money to Garcelle. "We'll put it
in your piggy bank when we get home," Garcelle
promised her.

"When can we see my little girl?" Hank asked as
Mimi rubbed his lower back.

"Right now. But try and keep it down, okay?" said
Kahron. He opened the door and held it open as
everyone filed out.

Kade grabbed Garcelle around the waist from
behind. "You sure you want to be a part of this
circus?" he asked.

"There's nothing more I want in the world," she
told him before she turned, wrapped her arms
around his neck, and kissed him deeply, with lots
and lots of love, passion, and chemistry, which
burned hot like fire.

Dear Readers,

I hoped you felt the love, passion, and fire between
Kade and Garcelle. Theirs was truly a love that was
able to overcome all obstacles.

This joint Strong Family / Hot Holtsville Series is becoming near and dear to me. I am truly enjoying
each and every one of these couples as they fall headfirst in love. Fever is coming soon. It is book three in
the Strong Family Series and book five in the Hot
Holtsville Series. In Feveryou will see just how Kaeden
Strong finally finds the courage to go after the sexy
Jade Prince. It will be a sexy, funny, and endearing
book, which I hope you all will enjoy.

Also, don't forget that Show and Tell, the sequel to
my critically acclaimed mainstream debut, Live and
Learn, is on its way to you all in March 2008. Catch
up with Dom, Alize, Cristal, and Moet. You won't
believe how the lessons they learned go right out
the window as they each face more drama than
ever.

Thanks again to all of you for your loyal support. I
appreciate and cherish you all.

As always, Love 2 Live & Live 2 Love.

Best,
Niobiar

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