Red Hot (20 page)

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Authors: Niobia Bryant

BOOK: Red Hot
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The saltiness of the meat made his eyes bug before he caught himself. He chewed and smiled at them. The meat was a lot more tender than it looked, though.
Kaitlyn bit back a smile. “I didn't realize your meat tenderizer was seasoned, and I had already put a lot of seasoning on it,” she admitted.
Quint swallowed and reached for the glass of juice next to his plate. “Not bad,” he admitted, taking a deep sip. “A little salty but not bad.”
They all resumed eating. Like he thought, neither was ready for a chef position; but it was edible, if not delicious.
He looked up when Kaitlyn started choking.
“You all right?” he asked, reaching out to pat her back lightly as she set her glass back down on the table.
Kaitlyn nodded as she continued to cough. “It went down the wrong hole,” she said.
Kaitlyn and Quint looked at each other and said “Pause” in unison before they laughed.
“You okay, Miss Kaitlyn?” Lei asked.
“I'm good.”
Quint removed his hand from her back and tried not to notice that the outline of her bra proved to be just as skimpy as the one she wore that night in the shed.
Her nipples looked so damn good against the black lace.
“I got a job,” Kaitlyn said suddenly.
It was Quint's turn to choke, but he held up his hands that he was fine when Kaitlyn moved to swat his back.
“That's good,” he said as she eyed him.
“Yeah, they even gave me a better position than the one I wanted,” she said, pushing around the food on her plate. “After I met with the owners to be a salesclerk/stylist, I was offered the position as the majority owner's assistant and to help with the buying for four stores he owns.”
Quint puckered his forehead. “So you got a promotion without even trying?” he asked, sounding skeptical.
Kaitlyn shrugged as Lei rose to take their plates.
“I think they didn't want to offend me by
not
giving me a job, because I spent so much money there, but I also don't think they wanted to trust putting me in the store, in case I quit after a month or something.”
That made no sense to Quint, but what did he know about the mind-set of rich folks?
“And your boss is a dude?” he asked.
“Lyle? Yes,” she said. She set her chin in her hand as she looked at him. “Why?”
“Just asking,” Quinton said, rising from the table. “Is he married?”
Kaitlyn rolled her eyes heavenward.
“No,”
she stressed. “Why?”
“Just curious about old boy, that's all,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant.
“We didn't have time to make dessert,” Lei said.
“We can ride to Dairy Queen and get some ice cream,” Quint offered. He looked down at Kaitlyn, who still sat with her chin in her hand, watching him. “Care to join?”
She tilted her head to the side before she rose. “No, but thank you. I have to drive some files to my boss's house later.”
Lei looked disappointed.
Quint grunted.
Kaitlyn threw her hands up in exasperation. “Now what, Quint?”
“Lei, go get your coat,” Quinton said as he walked behind Kaitlyn to the front door. “And, Kaitlyn, just be sure this great deal is all business and no pleasure.”
“Not every man within two feet of me wants to screw me,” she drawled before turning to head up the stairs.
“Now
that's
a bunch of bullshit,” he said, enjoying the view as she walked away.
Kaitlyn never stopped her ascent up the steps, and soon the sound of her front door closing echoed.
C
HAPTER
12
“I'm headed to lunch, Kaitlyn. I should be back around two.”
Kaitlyn looked up as her boss, Lyle Turner, strolled past her desk with his usual flair. Blond hair lying just right. Clothes pressed and styled to perfection. Skin perfectly tanned, even as the fall season reigned in South Carolina.
“Enjoy,” she told him, glad he was leaving the downtown Charleston offices and not watching her like a hawk.
And she learned in the weeks that followed that around two probably meant that he was done for the day. His equally gorgeous male lover, whose skin was as smooth and dark as black opal, would keep him tied up for the afternoon.
Her job was to look pretty, dress well, answer the phone, and take messages when he didn't ask her to accompany him to fashion shows or designer showrooms for her opinion on the latest trends. She was handling the job just fine, and even enjoyed it. And she was learning even more about the fashion and retail industry than just shopping up a storm. He owned four upscale boutiques—two in Charleston, one in Mount Pleasant, and another in Charlotte, North Carolina—and he wanted her to start presenting ideas for items to be carried in all of them.
She just wished the government didn't snatch so much in taxes. Kaitlyn opened the envelope with her first paycheck. She was paid every other week—a concept she had struggled to understand—and she had not counted on losing such a chunk.
Taxes were no joke; and Quinton said that at the end of the year, she had to file tax returns and possibly pay more!
Ugh!
She looked out the clear glass window at the beautiful sight of historical Charleston. Lyle's offices were located on the upper level of a beautiful four-story building on King Street. The brick building had a façade that matched the history of the surrounding neighborhood. It was a nice view. The offices were plush and stylish. All of the best eateries and shops were in walking distance, and she got to talk fashion on the regular.
The life!
Because she knew she had checks coming—and her parents were still covering her expenses for the next few months—Kaitlyn had splurged a little. A few new wardrobe staples. A pair or two of sensible kitten heels for those days she didn't feel like strutting in four-inch heels. Her hair cut and dyed and laid to the side. New makeup. Mani and pedi.
She was completely back to the old Kaitlyn, or was she?
Kaitlyn twirled in her seat and reached down into the infamous Hermès bag, which had started it all, to pull out her cell phone. She crossed her legs in her A-line navy linen skirt, with leather piping detail. She hit number five on her speed dial roster. Parents first. Then Kade. Kahron. Kaleb. And Kaeden.
“Yes, little sister,” he said.
“Hiya, Specs,” she said playfully as she pulled out her compact and tube of bright red lipstick.
“Ever since you cried to Ma about us teasing you about that streak of white hair by calling you—”
Kaitlyn stopped applying her lipstick and sat up straight in her chair. “Don't you say it,” she warned.
“Skunkie,” he finished without a bit of pause.
Kaitlyn snapped her compact shut and was pretty sure she cracked the glass. “Okay, no more nicknames,” she said quickly.
Kaeden laughed.
“An-y-way,”
she stressed. “I need a full list of all my bills.”
The line stayed quiet.
Kaitlyn tapped her bright red fingernail against the mouthpiece.
“Hello?” she sang into the phone.
“Sorry, you shocked me. You never asked that before. Ever,” Kaeden said.
Kaitlyn picked up a pen and pulled forward a pad.
“Just give it to me.”
And he did.
At times she cringed. At other times her eyes widened. But still, she scribbled away.
And then he gave her the total monthly expenses.
Kaitlyn gasped.
“It would have been much higher with the rent you used to have.”
Kaitlyn set her chin in her hand as she looked at the list of bills and looked at her check. She fell back in her chair and fought the urge to slump down.
“Kaitlyn, you there?” he asked.
“Yeah. I'll call you back,” she said, ending the call.
The door to the outer office opened and she looked up. Her face filled with surprise to see Quint stroll in. She rose to her feet and came around the desk to meet him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, thinking he looked really handsome in a charcoal peacoat over a sweater of the same color, paired with dark denims.
He looks hella good.
Quinton looked around the office. “I was downtown handling some business and I thought I'd come by and take you to lunch.”
Kaitlyn looked confused. “Me? You want to take me to lunch?” she asked.
Quint walked over to her desk and then looked down the hall behind him. “Yes. You can't eat with me?” he asked, turning to study her.
Kaitlyn locked her hands behind her back as she gazed at him.
Well, just like the night she first told him of her job, Kaitlyn thought Quinton was a little jealous. And she liked the idea of that.
She liked it a lot.
Quinton Wells was an extraordinarily handsome man, with the kind of body a man had to put work into to receive. He was a good father. He was helpful; and once they got past their initial dislike of each other, she found him to give good, solid advice. She enjoyed being in his company and the way they taunted each other while flirting shamelessly. She loved that he didn't pursue his desire for her, because he knew she would want more from him.
That made him honorable.
Plus he was sexy as hell.
And she liked him. She liked him a lot. Enough that she wanted more from him than he thought he was willing to give.
“Well, Lyle usually insists we eat lunch together. He said we look good together,” Kaitlyn lied, crossing the room to pass Quint and letting her hand trail across his chest as she circled him. She came around him to lean on her desk.
Quint shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat. “You do know he can't force you to go out or do anything you don't want to do?” he asked, looking down at her with his dark, deep-set eyes.
Kaitlyn batted her long lashes at him. “Quinton, I know the difference between sexual harassment and courting,” she said. “In one I feel I have no choice. In the other I do.”
“So you're being courted?” he asked.
Kaitlyn had to bite the inside of her cheeks to keep from smiling. Quint was salty and trying not to show it.
“Don't I deserve to be courted?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“I don't see anyone else trying to do the job . . . do you?” she asked, sitting back in her chair to look up at him.
He paced the brief length of her desk before turning to press his hands against her desktop as he leaned down to face her.
“Who else would you want to do the job . . . or are you stuck on old boy back there?” he asked, lifting his strong chin toward the hall.
Kaitlyn leaned forward until their faces were inches apart.
“Is this another one of our dances, Quinton?” she asked him softly, the air around them crackling like static energy. “Another back-and-forth? Another challenge? Another chess move?”
His eyes dropped to her mouth.
“You don't want me, but you don't want anyone else to have me either,” she said boldly.
“Oh,
I want you,
” Quinton stressed.
“In bed. Yes. But in your life, Quinton? Do you want me in your life?” Kaitlyn asked, ignoring the steady pulsing of her clit.
This wasn't about
that.
It was all about her heart.
 
 
The entire time Quint stared down at Kaitlyn, he had to fight the urge to kiss her. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to taste her mouth—the way a man kisses the woman he cares about during a hello or good-bye.
And he had begun to think of her in that way:
the woman he cared about.
He was proud of her for finding a job, even if she sang the praises of her handsome boss at every given moment. And the more he thought of another man having her, the more he realized that he wanted Kaitlyn for himself. He couldn't remember the last time he felt jealous and threatened.
All he could think of was her boss, Lyle Turner, making moves on Kaitlyn and his jealousy pushed him over the edge. Just last night she stopped by their apartment to give Lei a huge pink rose arrangement, bragging that she had enough floral arrangements from
Lyle.
It took everything he had not to childishly kick it out the door like a football.
For the rest of the night, he was tormented by images of Kaitlyn—
his
Kaitlyn—and this faceless, wealthy man who seemed to be more about socializing than business. That night before he finally dozed off to sleep, he promised himself he was giving in to his curiosity about the man and would ease on down to downtown Charleston.
How could he not admit to himself that his feelings for Kaitlyn were beyond that of apartment manager and tenant, or even the good friends that they had become?
Although she and Lei had a close relationship, what effect would it have on Lei if they didn't make it?
But what effect could it have on her if they did?
Could he risk losing Kaitlyn because he was afraid to take a chance?
“Do you want me in your life?” Kaitlyn asked again.
“Every day it's getting harder to picture you
not
in it,” Quint admitted, as so many different emotions burst inside his chest like fireworks. He felt excited and nervous and anxious and even a little afraid. But mostly . . . he felt happy. And outside of the love and joy he received from his child, it had been quite some time since he felt that way.
Her eyes melted and that tugged at him. He gave in and pressed his mouth to hers.
“We've been fighting this for a minute, huh?” he asked her as she used her thumb to wipe the lipstick from his mouth.
“Yesss!”
she exclaimed, pushing back and rising from her seat to come around the desk to him.
Quint placed a hand on her waist, and it felt natural and easy to him. “So we're not fighting it anymore?” he asked, his voice deep and serious.
Kaitlyn shook her head. “I'm not.”
He nudged his head toward the hall.
Kaitlyn stepped up close to him and pressed her hands to his smooth face before she kissed him.
“He has nothing on you,” she promised him.
Quint's lips still tingled from her kiss and the touch of her thumb as she removed the lipstick.
“You look really beautiful,” he admitted.
Kaitlyn twirled away from him dramatically and then struck a pose in her crisp white shirt with the bell sleeves and elaborate high neck, with a side bow.
“Who me?” she asked before starting to vogue.
He smiled at her goofiness, but then he looked around.
“Where's your boss?” he asked. “I really can use some lunch.”
Kaitlyn stopped midpose. “I have to pass on lunch. I'm sorry,” she said as she walked back up to him.
“Okay. I did just drop by unexpected.” Quint reached for her hand and rubbed his thumb against her pulse. “How about dinner when you get off?”
“A date?” she asked, smiling.
He liked that he caused that smile. “Yeah, a date. You game?”
Kaitlyn nodded. “Definitely. I should be home by six.”
He bent down and pressed a kiss to her cheek before he allowed himself a quick inhale of her perfume.
“See you then,” Quint promised, giving her hand one last, light squeeze before he turned and walked out of the office.
He was glad that she couldn't see the smile on his face. He couldn't wipe it off to save his life. Even as he jogged down the stairs, he found he was still smiling like a fool.
Hell with it.
He stepped out of the building and onto the street and chanced a look up to find Kaitlyn already standing at the window. She was casually leaning against the windowsill with her arms crossed over her chest. He smiled, thinking she looked like a mannequin.
Quint wondered what her thoughts were as he turned and walked the short distance down the street to where his vehicle was parked. When he came to Kaitlyn's job, his goal had been to check out her boss, but he was leaving with a date planned for that night. It felt like bungee jumping—that mix of exhilaration and anxiety.

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