One Hot Momma (5 page)

Enough was enough, and he had had enough already!
Rafe
left her at his house and headed into town. He wasn’t much of a drinker, but he needed something to take the edge off right now. Walking out the door was one of the hardest things he ever had to do. Life with
Layla
was the goal, two kids, maybe a few of their own to add in the mix. Life with
Layla
was an impossible dream, and he would not put those kids through another day of him being around just to be let down in a few years when she moved on to someone, or now that he knew part of the truth, somewhere else.

He punched the radio buttons and found a loud screaming rock station. His foot hit the pedal, and he was burning rubber down his driveway and then throwing up gravel as he hit the path out of the Johnson Family Ranch compound.

* * *

“
Rafe
!”
Lucky shouted as he walked in the door. Everything about Lucky exuded youth and freedom. “Come on back.”

“How the hell are you?”
Rafe
smacked the young man on his back and followed him to the corner booth. Three lovely young things were waiting on him.

“How does it look?” Lucky laughed.
Rafe
shook his head and took a seat next to the brunette.

“Are you a rodeo cowboy, too?” She beamed at him with open admiration. How long had it been since a woman looked at him with such happiness?

“Oh, I don’t know about that.”
Rafe
shrugged. “I’m
Rafe
, you are?”

“Alexandra, but everyone calls me
Lexi
.”
Lexi
batted fully lashed brown eyes at him and licked her pretty pink lips. She was a cute little thing. Not as tall as
Layla
, certainly she was more voluptuous than
Layla
.

“It’s nice to meet you,”
Rafe
offered.

“So,” Lucky interrupted. “What brings you out tonight? I hardly see you anymore when I get back this way.”

“I’ve been busy.”
Rafe
left it at that. If he was going to drown his sorrows in booze and a busty brunette, he didn’t need to tell everyone he had been babysitting two great kids for one impossible woman. “But I have a lot of time now.”

“Are you thinking about riding this weekend?” Lucky asked then started before he could respond, “Ladies,
Rafe
here taught me everything I know about riding. I owe my sponsorship to him. I’d have been a math teacher if I hadn’t gotten into this life.”

The girls laughed.
Rafe
looked at Lucky. Lucky continued, “Three plus one can be a lot of fun, but three plus two equals more time for just a few.”

“That was terrible.”
Lexi
laughed at
Lucky’s
rhyme.

The girls on his side of the table were twins. They were platinum blonde, big busted, and not very bright by the look of things.

“Wow. I would love to be able to do math without a calculator,” blonde number one said.

“
Rafe
, this is Mercedes and Porsche,” Lucky said and
Rafe
could tell he used all energy to remain serious while saying it. “Their daddy owns a… what was it again?”

“A car dealership down in Phoenix.
We’re up here for vacation. We wanted to meet some new cowboys. We’re tired of Arizona and Texas cowboys. All they want to do is ride, work, train, work. I mean how much work does a man have to do these days?” Porsche, blonde number two, said.

“Our daddy doesn’t work that much and he always made sure we had whatever we wanted. When they said we couldn’t go skiing in the middle of the school year, he got us a tutor and we were home schooled. It just ain’t right to make a girl miss vacation,” Mercedes added.

Lucky made a face and
Lexi
laughed.

“What about you? Were you home schooled, too?”
Rafe
asked.

“No. I study biology at The University of North Carolina. I just met Lucky, and these two came to meet him also, and then you showed up, so now I am just waiting to see what happens next.”
Lexi
laughed. “This is turning out to be a pretty good vacation.”

All
Rafe
heard was Lucky and vacation, and he knew he was not going to be taking this one anywhere tonight.

Lucky smiled at the girl and winked then looked at
Rafe
. “So what’s it going to be old man? You gonna ride or what?”

“I don’t know. First, I’m gonna take this gal right here on the dance floor. Then I’ll decide if I’m going to take your money this weekend.”
Rafe
offered a hand to
Lexi
. Excited she took it and then they were on their way to the floor. He looked back at Lucky and the twins. One plus two equals a choice in dance partners, and Lucky was not having much luck with the math.

“Biology.
That must be fun,”
Rafe
said as he pulled
Lexi
in close for a slow dance.

“It’s all right. I mean I mainly study marine life, and I am really interested in the coral reefs… I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear about all that. It’s why I rarely get dates back home. No one wants a geeky girl.”
Lexi
looked back toward Lucky and the blondes. “He is out of my league, isn’t he?”

“You’re out of his, sweetheart. If I know one thing, I know ladies, and Lucky is still sewing wild oats. Now, if you want a one-night stand, he’d be up for it. I know him well enough to know that. But do you really want that?”
Rafe
watched her big brown eyes turn sad in concentration. “You’re a beautiful young lady, and you can have your pick of guys. Maybe you’re just fishing in the wrong pools.”

She nodded. “I guess I do tend to look for…”

“People who are not
available,
or people you think are attractive? You look for that because you want to be them, not because you want them. But let me tell you this, I think you are pretty, and smart, and you can do a whole lot better than a one night stand in Montana on this vacation.”
Rafe
knew women. He knew
Layla
really did want to marry him, he knew Chance loved
Heath,
he knew Jack loved Bethany, and he knew his little sister Jan and her husband Buck would last a lifetime. He also knew this little thing in his arms was hoping to wrangle herself a wild stallion, but he also knew deep in her heart she would feel worse for it, not better.

“You’re right,” she whispered. “So I guess you’re not trying to pick me up either, huh?”

“Oh, he is trying to pick you up, make no mistake. Lucky likes to be chased. You want someone who is interested in more than just a one night stand.”
Rafe
looked around the room. He saw someone he thought might actually have an interest in her. “Now that one over there, he’s the town sheriff. That is a guy who could show you Montana and one you might not want to leave. He’s about thirty though; Roy just can’t seem to find a woman who cares about the things he cares about.”

“What does he care about?” She looked at him while
Rafe
moved them closer to where Roy was sitting, all alone, with one bottle of beer.

“The lakes, conservation of the land and preserving the wildlife here.”
Roy took a lot of flak from some people, but
Rafe
and others who grew up respecting the bounty of Mother Nature understood him completely.

“Really?”
Lexi
was genuinely interested. “I’m twenty-four. That’s not a terribly large gap in age, is it?”

“Nah.”
Rafe
laughed as the song stopped, and
Lexi
practically slid from his arms and walked in Roy’s direction.
“Not at all.”

“
Rafe
.
What the fuck? Where is my girl going?” Lucky started after
Lexi
, but
Rafe
caught him by the shoulder.

“Come on, Lucky, you know you weren’t really interested in her anyways.”

“I could have been.” Lucky turned easily and headed to another table away from the twins. “You didn’t have to leave me with those two.
Sheesh
, I thought I was dumb sometimes. Those two better hope their daddy leaves them enough money to plow through the rest of their lives.”

“I’m sure he will get a tutor for them.”
Rafe
laughed. “So tell me about this weekend.”

* * *

Layla
stayed in
Rafe’s
house. She didn’t have much of a choice since he left her there, and she didn’t have transportation with her. She wasn’t about to go to any of his family and ask them for a ride back to her place. After crying, she did what any girl should do, she called her mother. Another hour or two of crying, and she was done. Her mother gave her the answers she needed to hear. She gave her permission to live her life again, not Lola’s. She realized that everyone had been holding on to the past and living the charade for the sake of the children, but the children were not fooled.

Boredom is what got the best of her.
Layla
explored the house, noticed the rugs, the hardwood floors, the railing to the rooms upstairs. Once she was there, everything became clear.
Rafe
wasn’t really asking her to marry him because of the heat in one moment of their lives. The rooms were set up for Brice and Savannah, and he must have been working on them since shortly after they met. What a fool she had been. Or was she?
Rafe
loved the children, and she loved
Rafe
, but did
Rafe
love her, and really how could he? Aside from the children, he didn’t really know her.

* * *

Maybe he didn’t know she was still there. He came in, tossed his keys on the counter, and then headed into his bedroom.
Layla
heard every move as she got up from the bed in Savannah’s room and made her way down the stairs.
“
Rafe
?”

He didn’t answer.

She walked through the darkness feeling the walls for a light switch. When she got to the next doorway, her hand crossed a solid mass of flesh and chest hair.
“
Rafe
.”

“What the hell are you still doing here?” he asked. She sniffed, hoped he was drunk, but no luck. She should have known better. He wasn’t the kind of man to drink and drive. He was sober and still sore about earlier. She understood but hoped he would have softened enough to talk by now.

“I didn’t have a way home, remember?” Instead of letting him go, she placed her other hand on his chest. She could see him in shadows and light from the bedroom close to where they were standing. He probably couldn’t see her at all. “
Rafe
, I need to tell you…”

“You don’t need to tell me anything. I’m done with it,
Layla
.” His words stabbed like ice picks.

Boldly, aware that he may reject her but desperate to make him more agreeable once again, she stroked her hand down his chest, over his abs, and into his boxer shorts.

“
Layla
,” he warned, but she could feel his length thicken in her hand.

“
Shhh
,” she said and dropped to her knees.

It was too much for him to deny her since he would really be denying them both.
Rafe
wanted her; his body didn’t lie. Pulling his briefs down as she slid into a better position,
Layla
hoped she could keep steady hands and not seem as nervous as she truly was.

“This doesn’t change anything,” he said weakly.

“I know,” she lied.

He had expected her to go get the children and ask Heath to take her home. He had not expected her to wait at his house for him to return. He definitely did not expect her to reach into his briefs. The touch made his body betray his intentions and then she dropped to her knees. He was mad, yes. However, he was also a man, and when the woman he had longed for and loved for so long got on her knees with his cock in her hand, he let her. Hell, he deserved this. He deserved one last roll in the hay. Maybe this would really show her how good it could have been.

Her breath caressed the head, and his eyes closed. Maybe this would show him just how badly he was going to miss her. Not what he was planning at all.

Layla
inhaled one more deep breath then opened her mouth and took him inside. It had been years since she had been intimate with a man. College away from Lola had given her a little bit of freedom, a chance to meet someone and not fear her sister stealing him away. She was always careful, not like she was being now. The taste of
Rafe
beat the hell out of the taste of latex any day. This wasn’t something she had ever enjoyed before, but now, listening to his breathing, the sound of her mouth and his skin, the soft moans of pleasure he obviously tried to hold back, she felt as if she had power.

The rush consumed her. She placed her hands on his thighs and felt the muscles beneath her fingers tense. She let him slide deeper, farther back than she thought possible. His hands betrayed his anger and pulled her hair up and away from her face. Her glasses slid on her nose just slightly from the rocking motion.

She pulled back, and her lips made a popping sound as they left his cock. She wasn’t finished with him, but her jaw was feeling tight, and she needed to flex the muscles.

“
Layla
,” he started in a near whisper.

Layla
didn’t want to give him the chance to change his mind. She opened her mouth and took him in again. His right knee bent and his head fell back. She sucked, licked, and took him in as far as she could without gagging.

His entire body changed. His knee locked back in place, and his hands left her hair and gripped her shoulders. He pushed her back far enough she couldn’t keep him in her mouth. “
Rafe
, I want to…”

“Stand up.” He didn’t ask, he commanded as he practically pulled her off the floor. As she stood, he embraced her in a rough and demanding hug. His lips came down on hers with an urgency she had never known in
Rafe
. He was always gentle, easy. Now he was more like a caveman ready to knock her out and drag her back to his bedroom. She met him with equal intensity. “Damn it!”

He walked them to the bedroom stepping out of his briefs somewhere along the line. When he sat her on her feet again, he seemed angry. At her or
himself
she couldn’t tell. “Take your clothes off.”

She didn’t like him this way, but she deserved the distance he was trying to put up between them. Nervously she undressed as he searched through his dresser drawer for a box of condoms. The moonlight filtered in through the window and silhouetted his gorgeous body. This was
Rafe
, she reminded herself. Even if he was mad right now, he wouldn’t hurt her. She took a deep breath and then lay back on his bed.
Completely naked, completely open to him.

Rafe
turned back toward her expecting something else. Instead of scaring her, making her feel more distant, possibly making her run, because he was having a hard time keeping himself from wanting to propose marriage again, she had opened up even more and practically welcomed him to do as he pleased. He would not give her the satisfaction of breaking him tonight. “Turn over.”

Her eyes widened, and he fought the smile. She wasn’t expecting that. She was hoping for more kissing, more licking, more of him pleasing her, but he was not going to give in that easily. He had spent months at her beck and call, for what, multiple rejections and a broken heart.

He wanted so terribly bad to be like Lucky for one night; free of the woman in his bed come morning. As he positioned himself behind her, he felt her body tense. Did she think he would hurt her? Even though he was mad, hurt, and frustrated, he wouldn’t hurt her. Guilt got the best of him, and he let his hands stroke her back first. She relaxed. He realized how much weight she had lost since he met her. He couldn’t tell under the clothes she wore, and he was too preoccupied the first time they had sex with the fact she was letting him near her he didn’t care or notice.

Now, however, he could see the frail frame of a woman dealing with more than her share of life. His jaw tightened. “Turn over.”

Silently, slowly, she obeyed him. Her expression was pure confusion. He reached toward her face and took her glasses off. As he laid the glasses on the nightstand, he knew he wouldn’t put her out of his bed tonight, but he would have to get her out of his house and out of his life for a little while in the morning.

Layla
watched his expression soften as he pulled her glasses off of her face and laid them aside. It was almost as if he was giving up on something. When he touched her again, it was gentle,
more tender
than any other touch she had known. When his lips met hers, it was as if he were making love to her, and for the last time. She refused to let those thoughts enter her brain. This was just
Rafe
being
Rafe
,
gentle, caring… she had made a huge mistake. Rejecting him was the worst thing she had ever done.

His body covered hers. Slowly, silently, they began the age old dance of lovemaking. Her hands gripped his back and tried to keep him impossibly close to her. He kissed her time and again for long moments. Her body responded to his every touch, every move,
every
thrust. She was panting, rocking her hips up to meet him thrust for thrust. She could not get enough of him, not now, not ever. He was tireless in his efforts. The scent of their lovemaking filled the air. Sweat, sex, and the unique scent of
Rafe
combined for one heady aphrodisiac. It seemed as though it would never end; then he held her tighter, his thrusts became quicker, shallower, and her body wound against him, her release ready to break on his command.

“
Rafe
,”
Layla
called out his name as she came right after him in a rolling wave of pleasure. He kissed her full and deep until the pulsations slowed and eventually stopped.

“
Rafe
,” she said as he rolled off her and got up to dispose of the condom. He didn’t answer her or look back. “I just…”

“It didn’t change anything,
Layla
. Tomorrow you will go home, and I will explain to the children that I will be away for a while. You need time to think about things. So do
I
.” He walked back into the bedroom, leaned over her, and kissed her on the lips one last time.
“Sleep.”

“But…” She started as he walked out of the room closing the door behind him.

* * *

Layla
awoke the next morning wearing one of
Rafe’s
T-shirts she had pulled from his chest of drawers. She inhaled deeply, and the scent of fresh coffee made her smile. Maybe he was willing to be a bit friendlier this morning.
Layla
found her bra, pulled on her jeans, and straightened herself up. She had showered when he left; her hair was still a bit of a tangled mess, but he didn’t have a hair dryer, and the natural waves made her hair more unruly than usual. Ready for anything, or so she thought,
Layla
headed out to the kitchen to face the day.

“Hi,” Bethany said with a warm smile. “
Rafe
stopped by this morning and asked if I could give you and the kids a ride home. He had to be somewhere important apparently because he was adamant about being there on time.”

“I…”

“Heath is going to bring the kids over within the hour. He said they were eating breakfast right now, so I thought I would make myself useful.” Bethany looked at
Layla
, then the stove, then back to
Layla
. “I hope you don’t mind. I got bored, and I didn’t want to wake you.”

“It’s fine, thank you.”
Layla
hoped her face did not reveal the disappointment her heart felt. He was serious. Last night didn’t change anything. Defeated she walked toward the stove and made a plate. She was trapped with Jack’s wife Bethany for at least an hour. “I hope the kids had a good time.”

It was lame conversation, but she didn’t really know what to say.

“Well, they were laughing this morning in the background, so I am sure they will have tons of stories to tell.” Bethany smiled and took a seat with her own plate. “I don’t normally eat breakfast twice, but I could only eat toast this morning, and now I am starving.”

Layla
forced a smile. She made quick work of getting food in her mouth. Maybe she could avoid conversation if she kept eating. As she ate, she realized how hungry she was. She didn’t eat after
Rafe
left yesterday; her stomach growled in approval of the food.

“I really love what he has done with this place. Chance and I made him give us the full tour after the Heath incident.” Bethany quirked her lips into a half smile. “These Johnson men are sure something to figure out. Not that I’m innocent, or Chance either, for that matter, they seem to be attracted to women with issues.” She laughed.

Layla
nodded. “Well you and Jack make a lovely couple.”

“Thank you.” Bethany blushed.

Layla
wondered what the woman was thinking as she sighed and stared at an indiscernible spot for a moment. It was a good thought, her face expressed as much clearly.

They ate in relative silence. Bethany didn’t seem uncomfortable by the quiet.

The kitchen door opened and in ran Savannah and Brice. They were pink cheeked and full of excitement.

“Mom!”
Brice ran to her and hugged her. “I caught a fish!”

“And we ate it!” Savannah clapped her hands in excitement. “And we went swimming!”

“Swimming?”
Layla
looked up at Heath. He shrugged.

“And we roasted march-
mallowds
.” Brice shook her hand gaining her attention back to him.
“With chocolate and crackers.”

When she looked up again, Heath was gone. “Where did he go?”

“Probably ducked out after the look you gave him.” Bethany laughed again. “It sounds like you guys enjoyed your camping trip.”

“Uncle Heath said we can come camping anytime Mom lets us.” Savannah smiled.

“Uncle Heath?”
Layla
could feel her heart thunder, panic set in around her. “But Heath isn’t your uncle.”

“We make our own family now, just like you.” Savannah shrugged.

“What do you mean?”
Layla
whispered. Bethany was there, but she needed to know now what Savannah was talking about.

“You know. You were Aunt
Layla
. Now you’re Mommy. Mr. Heath was Mr. Heath. Now he’s Uncle Heath.” She smiled. “We chose him and everybody else to be our relatives, too.”

Layla
could feel tears falling behind her glasses. Her chest tightened; her mouth went dry. It was a full-blown panic attack. Everything she suspected was confirmed. Savannah knew. She could hear her name being called; Bethany was closer to her now. The children were calling for her. The room went dark.

* * *

“Look, I understand everything, but I am still going to have a talk with him when he gets in.” Jack, Bethany’s husband and
Rafe’s
little brother was there now.

“
Layla
?”
Bethany came to her side.

She had a bag of frozen peas on her head, held in place by Savannah. Brice held onto her glasses and stood quietly staring at her.

“What happened?” She could feel heat creep over her face as she sat up to face the four of them. “I mean, I’m sorry I passed out. I get… I don’t know why I can’t…”

“Don’t worry about it.” Bethany smiled. “See guys, your Mom is okay, just like I promised.”

“Can we go home now?”
Layla
whispered. She was mortified. Jack quirked a brow as he looked at her, shook his head, and then whispered something to Bethany.

“It runs in your family.” She said in a normal tone, getting a scowl from her husband.
“Kisses.”

He shook his head at her this time then kissed her on the lips. “Okay
kiddo’s
, be easy on her today all right?”

“Yes sir.” They both nodded and answered in unison.

Layla
frowned. She had never had an episode in front of them before. Fainting was new to the panic attacks, which began after her sister died and she became responsible for the children. The combination of all they had done camping, and then Savannah’s revelation simply rocked her to the core.

“Heath put your backpacks in the van already so I guess I am ready when you are.” Bethany said as though nothing major had taken place moments before. For that,
Layla
was grateful.