He hadnt changed. His fine suits, his fine house, the fine wife hed buried only this afternoonThe fine schools hed attended but hadnt fit intoHis whole damn life was a lie.
This girl was real. Too damn real. And she made him real.
Dont play your whore tricks on me, he snarled even as he sank down on the bed beside her.
On a whimper, she shrank from him. Her wide eyes fixed on the broken bottle in his hand. Strips of black nylon held fast and put her at his mercy.
He saw a brown boy, facedown, in a vacant lot and the bullies standing over him, kicking dirt and rocks at him.
Be still. I wont hurt you. Im going to cut you loose.
She watched him. He fought not to look at her. Still, sitting on her bed, their hips touching, he felt joined to her in ways he didnt understand.
He caught the scent of her perfume. Gardenias. Sweet, sweet gardenias. The fragile scent took him back to a summer day, to a cool, shady garden, to a haughty white woman whod frowned at him with fury when hed picked that single perfect blossom. He remembered her children in the same garden and the bouquets theyd held.
No.
The heat of the whore against his hip was a wholesome pleasure compared to his bitter memories. Perspiration beaded his brow. Better her. Better this hellish shack than his own shameful past.
The girl stared at his face unblinkingly. Hawaii? Love
He waved the razor edges of the brown glass under her chin. Then he deliberately sliced a brown fingertip across the glass that was like a blade. Blood bubbled, oozed. A single drop splashed her cheek.
She started, whimpered.
Hold still. Understand? So I dont cut you.
Her expression was grave, but she didnt move when he began sawing with the bottle.
After a few swipes, the nylon gave, and her limp arm fell across her breast. Trouble was, he had to lean across her to reach her other wrist.
The second he felt her female flesh molding his, something hot and dangerous consumed him.
His heart slowed to painful thuds. Male nerve cells registered body heat, registered gardenias, woman smell. Registered her. She fit him like a glove.
She was available. She would do anything.
Wildfire.
Her breasts pressing into his chest made him dizzy. His hand began to shake so badly he had to stop so he wouldnt cut her.
She held her breath.
So did he.
Get a grip. Dont let her know. Work fast.
Again, jagged brown glass sheered the flimsy nylon.
But she knew. The instant she was free, her hands were all over him.
I love you. Love me. I love you. Love me, she pleaded in Marcies drawl.
Her hands. Her body.
Marcies voice.
Love me. That constant refrain pounded through him like a drumbeat. Eagerly her hands moved over his torso.
He had to get away. It had been a mistake to lean over her. Her skillful, expert hands, her whores hands knew exactly what to do to arouse a man like him.
Lightly, ever so lightly, she stroked. Sliding across his chest, her heated fingertips had his damp shirt out of his pants in no time, his belt unbuckled. Then like heat-seeking missiles, her hands were inside his jeans, circling him with her fist.
Low moans rose from her throat, her excitement matching his when she found him already hard.
Marcie used to moan like that. Until hed forbidden her to make that sound in bed. Youre not a whore. Youre my wife.
Hed liked what Marcie had done too much. Hed known shed win him through sex. It was a way to that deeper part of him hed sealed and locked, so hed be safe. With a whore, he could let go in bed. Because there were other lines he wouldnt cross with a whore.
The girl writhed. To hold her still, he threw a leg over her thighs. She wiggled, snugged herself closer. He slashed her ankle bindings loose with the broken bottle. Their hips joined.
Meltdown.
Wrapping herself around him, she clung.
For years hed been alonehis whole damn life. This woman, the soft warmth of her, erased all that. He gulped in air as her fist caressed him.
Love me.
Youre a whore.
He saw tearing pain in her gaze. She froze, and he was moved beyond words by the sheen of tears misting her black-lashed blue eyes, by the way she drew back with proud dignity. I love youB-B
But whatever drug she was on got the best of her. Before Luke could register the name she called him, she wiggled closer, bringing her lips up to his. She caught her lower lip with her teeth. When she released it with a soft kiss, the swollen softness was pink, wet and shiny. And so damned kissable.
She kissed him, and her adoration, sweetness and innocence amazed him. Her seeming innocence, he amended.
He held his breath, his heart beating hard and fast. Dont. Dont.
But she kept at it, this spontaneous nibbling of his lips. She had a marvelous mouth. And not just to look at. She tasted, oh, God, she tasted delicious and so damned innocentand so utterly utterly sweet.
Her tongue teased his, traced along the upper edges of his teeth. Nobody kissed like that but an expert.
Almost at once, he was shaking. Hardly knowing what he did, his mouth opened. He wanted more.
Gently, marveling at the softness of her skin, he let his knuckle touch her face. She didnt recoil. For a long moment he just held her. He felt her breasts rising and falling beneath his chest.
Ravenous, he began to kiss her. You are beautiful, he breathed, his lips moving from her mouth, to her cheek, to her throat. Suddenly, he could contain himself no longer. Peeling her panties lower, he pushed her down into the mattress and straddled her. He tore at his jeans, unzipped his fly and shoved his jeans down. Somehow he had the presence of mind to fumble in his wallet for a condom. He tore it out of its package, put it on.
How many othersbesides me? How many, damn you? Brand Baines? Those jerks with Baines, too? What games did you play with them?
Only you, Brand She raised soulful eyes to him.
She didnt even know who he was, didnt care.
Then she saw him. Really saw him.
Youre notBrand!
How many
Where am She moaned, shut her eyes, thrashed her golden head back and forth. Oh, dear!
Youre in a shack. You were playing bondage games with three men.
Another voice, bright and sassy, not Marcies. Dont you dare say things like that to me, mister. But she was very pale. Why, who are you anyway?
In the next breath she saw the nylon around her wrist and moaned. Bondage? Youyou monster!
Me? This little game was all your idea!
Panicking, wild to escape him now, she pounded on his chest, kicked at his legs. NoNoNo
He hated teases. Whores dont say no.
Dont you dare tell me what I can or cannot do. I can too say no if I want to. NoNo
No? He laughed harshly, covering her sputtering lips with his hand. I can have you. Anybody can. You cant say no. Not now.
No, she mumbled and most defiantly against his thick fingers. Then she bit him, rather ferociously.
Ouch! His hat fell off.
Furious, he jammed a knee between the girls legs, positioned himself to lunge. She was too slim, too small to stop him.
Ouch! His hat fell off.
Furious, he jammed a knee between the girls legs, positioned himself to lunge. She was too slim, too small to stop him.
You want me to tie you up again. Youd like that, wouldnt you?
She countered with a piteous, mewing sound. Terrified eyes locked on his for a long, shocked moment. Then she slumped lifelessly.
Blood pumped. Take the sexy, sassy witch.
Rigid, she lay beneath him, blue eyes wide-open.
They were isolated. She was helpless. He could do whatever the hell he wanted.
So, do it. Nobody would know. Not even her.
He was swollen, on fire. The room was an oven. His black hair dripped perspiration onto the bed, onto her pale skin that gleamed with sweat, too. The need to take and ravage was so powerful, it almost robbed him of his humanity.
I can say no if I want to. NoNo
Sassy. Even when her face had been bloodless and shed been so scared.
Oh, God Had it come to this?
Panting hard, he drew back and moved a hand in front of her face. She didnt blink, didnt even see the five splayed fingers. He ran his hands through his soaking hair, smoothed it back, inhaled a ragged breath.
Something really was wrong with her. He fingered her wrist, found a pulse.
Wild with relief that at least she was alive, he pushed himself off her. He sat in the hot, stifling dark, cursing himself and her blasphemously. Through gritted teeth, he sucked in more deep breaths as he fought to regain normalcysanitydecency.
When she just lay there, her glassy eyes fixed on the ceiling, he got scared, too. Lifting her, he began to shake her.
Wake up.
She frowned, struggling to focus on his scowling face. SleepyYou are being most unpleasant.
Near panic, he dressed quickly, pulled her panties up those incredibly long legs, smoothed her dress. Touching, redressing her stirred him almost more than he could bear.
Stand up.
CantDizzy
Keep talking. He slapped her. Not hard. But hard enough to leave a red mark on her pale cheek. He instantly regretted having done so.
Youre mean.
He grabbed her shoe and his Stetson. When he jammed her bare foot into the high-heeled red pump, she couldnt balance and swayed into him.
Oops.
He grabbed her. What kind of pills are you on?
You really are most disagreeable.Im a good girl. I dont do drugs.
Liquor then? How much?
BrandDrinkNot liquor, though.
Luke didnt know much about drugs.
Whatever it was, youre higher than a kite.
Bottom line. He had to get her out of here. Put your arms around my neck.
Are we going on our honeymoon? Then she realized who she was really with. I think youd make the most dreadful bridegroom.
Jostling her into his arms seemed to waken her. She was lighter than he expected. Effortlessly, he carried her outside into the close, hot, humid dark, which reeked of diesel fumes, charcoal smoke and other fouler pollutants.
Are we in Maui yet? she asked, a tinge of desperation in her dazed, curious voice.
They were standing on a crumbling sidewalk in front of a shack smeared with graffiti. Hed nearly raped her. Shed called him a monster.
She thought they were on their honeymoon.
He played along. Cant you hear the surf and see the hula dancers?
Maui. Darling. Just like you promised.
Her wistful eyes and impish smile of sheer joy both dazzled him and terrified him.
Darling. The word, the way she said it wrapped itself around her soul. And his.
And her smile. That incandescent smile.
He wanted that irresistible smile to be for him. For him alone.
She took off his hat, turned it over and then plopped it on her own golden head. It swallowed her. She looked like a little girl playing cowgirl.
His gut clenched. So did his heart.
He could feel nothing for her. Nothing.
4
Oops. The yellow-haired whore shot him an irreverent grin.
His heart paused for a beat or two.
Cute. Childlike. Sassy.
All woman.
Those were Lukes first thoughts when she tiptoed out of the hotel bathroom in a blue terry cloth robe, nearly tripping on the hem of the voluminous thick folds that swallowed her.
Im sorry. Do you need to go She blushed slyly at this mention of bathroom activities, and scooted against the wall. She ran her fingers through golden, damp curls. How long was I?
Not that she looked like she cared in the least.
An hour. More than an hour, he grumbled, not because he was angry, but because hed been too aware of her in there and she was too damn pretty with all that honey-gold, flyaway hair cascading in rippling spirals all over her slim shoulders.
Sorry, she whispered without the least bit of sincerity. Fingertips fluttered quickly to her lips.
She didnt look like a whore anymore. Then she stared at him suspiciously, and he almost wished she did. He had the strangest feeling he didnt have her figured at all. But that was absurd.
She was tall, five eight if she was an inch. Yet she seemed smaller. She was too thin for his usual taste, but her delicately boned frame and her natural grace made her easy on his eye. And those soft, ample breasts and long, shapely legs made him forget how skinny she was in other places. Not that he could see much of her lush curves with so much blue terry cloth swaddling them, hem puddling at the slim ankles, thick, long sleeves dangling over her nervous fingertips.
Without her makeup, with her cheeks flushed from the long bath, without the tight polka-dot dress to cheapen her beauty, she looked sweet and youngas delectably innocent as a high school virgin, as classy as the priciest cover model, but a bit bratty, too.
The deep blue intensified the brilliant color of her eyes. It was those eyes, the way they sparkled with such mischief, that made her lookWhat? Sort of spontaneous and unpredictable.
She was so alive, incandescent, mesmerizing, sexier than hell. She drew him. Indeed, she had some gut-clenching power over him no woman had ever had. Or maybe, it was just that he felt so damned lonely and vulnerable after Marcie.
The girls golden hair shone, and he wanted to slide his fingers through its lustrous thickness. Who was he kidding? He wanted to do way more than that. Sex appealshe had it in spades. At least for him. Which put him on dangerous ground.
With looks like hers, she could make a fortune. She was wasting herself on the border.
Maybe he should hire this lively girl on a permanent basisto service him. Him alone. He wouldnt share.
He could hire somebody to teach her how to talk and act at his parties. In the right clothes, shed prance about palaces like a thoroughbred. Just like he did. Nobody would ever know they were a pair of fakes from the gutter.
Shed be more suited to him than the highbred socialites he dated. She knew what women were really for. He wouldnt let her near those self-help books and womens magazines that had made Marcie so dissatisfied. No expensive shrink like Marcies for this girl.
This girl turned him on. He needed a simple, basic relationship with a woman. Sex. A woman like her wouldnt demand what he wasnt capable of giving.