by KC Crowne
I wanted to find out.
Chapter 2
Crystal
I was pissed off and turned on all at the same time.
God, Gerald was something else. Cocky and arrogant yet charming and sharp. I’d stormed into his room trying to get some answers, yet all I’d come away with was nothing but a barrelful of sexual frustration. Sure as shit would’ve been easier to stare him down if he weren’t the most good-looking man I’d ever seen in my damn life. And naked at that!
I strode down the hall toward my office on the third floor. And Lord help me, but I couldn’t get that cock out of my mind. Gerald was tall – easily around 6’6 – so it should’ve been obvious he was packing. But the reality was even more than I’d been expecting. And he was a flirt, too. He loved to tease me, loved to drop a line designed to knock me off balance.
Hell, maybe I should’ve just bit the bullet and taken that cowboy for a ride. But like all these Texas ranch men, he was commanding, dominating, assertive. And in my experience, there was a fine line between that and controlling. And a controlling man was the last thing I wanted in my life again, even for a one-night kind of thing.
I let out a sigh of frustration, envelope still in hand as I stood in front of my office door. I pulled it open and stepped inside. It was a nice little space, all wood furniture, portrait art of Texas landscapes, and a window that offered a hell of a view of the woods behind the bed and breakfast, the town of Idylwood off in the distance.
After tossing the paper and envelope on the desk, I kicked my boots up and considered my situation. I’d been sure, so damn sure that Gerald was behind the whole thing. But while Gerald was all kinds of tough and gruff, I was positive he wasn’t a liar.
Among the art on the walls was a framed poster of the New York skyline – a shot I’d taken myself from my apartment in Brooklyn. I’d taken it as a little keepsake of my time in the city. Though New York had far from lived up to my expectations, I didn’t want to totally forget about it. But in times like these, I’d find myself wondering if I’d made a big mistake in leaving behind my high-income job for a life in Texas.
You were miserable there and you know it, I reminded myself. Then I did the same thing I’d do whenever I’d catch myself thinking that way – swiveled around in my chair and took in the gorgeous vista through the window behind my desk. My new life back home in Texas was far from easy, but it was a damn sight better than the grime and noise and everything else in New York.
But when I turned around, the letter I showed Gerald was staring me in the face. If only it had been him who’d tipped off the city. Sure, might not’ve done any good to know who it had come from, but at least I’d have an outlet for the major frustration coursing through me.
My phone buzzed on my desk, pulling me out of my thoughts. I leaned forward and checked the screen to see a text from Adrienne, my business partner and the proprietor of Adie’s, the small diner attached to the B&B. She, like me, was a Texas girl through and through.
How’d it go?
I’d told her and our other partner, Sabrina, about my impromptu “meeting” with Gerald before I’d made the decision to do it.
Ugh. Less said, the better, I replied.
Right after I sent the text, I heard the quick patter of footsteps approaching the office. I knew right away it was Adie – she’d never been one to shy away when gossip was afoot. She knocked quickly, only a formality with her, and the door opened.
“Alright, let’s hear it – what’d our cowboy have to say?”
Adrienne – Adie, as everyone called her – was petite and curvy and cute as a damn button, with a bright smile and eager, friendly features framed by cinnamon-colored hair worn in a stylish bob. She was dressed in her usual outfit of comfortable jeans and a white, V-neck t-shirt, a red-and-white-striped apron dusted in flour worn over that.
“Damn, Adie,” I said, checking out her outfit. “Couldn’t even wait to take off your apron before runnin’ up for the gossip.”
“I know, I know,” she said, taking it off and hanging it up on the coat rack next to the door, flour dusting the floor beneath it. “But you were finally gonna get some answers. You really think I was gonna sit around and wait for you to get back to me?” She dropped into the high-backed leather chair across from my desk and leaned forward, her hands on her knees. “Well? What happened?”
Before I could even think about how to begin, another set of footsteps hurried down the hall. These footfalls weren’t eager and quick like Adie’s, but slow and deliberate, a bit of a saunter to them. Sabrina, all the way.
The door was still open, and she gracefully slid through it, locking her dark eyes on me and letting a knowing smile play on her face. Sabrina was all glamour, with long, ink-dark hair and cat-like green eyes, fair skin and a killer figure.
“We get him dead-to-rights or what?”
Sabrina was the third partner at the B&B. She, like me and Adie, was a Texas girl, but she’d gone off to Stanford after high school, earning a master’s in psychology before finding a job at a clinic in San Francisco. Like with me, the city life hadn’t suited her one bit. So she’d headed back to Texas. We’d caught up, found that we were both looking for a new direction, and decided on the B&B.
Her duties weren’t the business end like me. She filled in the gaps between me and Adie, but her real money-maker was in the dating service she ran for Idylwood and Patterson. She’d put her degree and brains to use pairing single men and women, charging a tidy sum in the process. She even ran a sex shop out of the B&B, a collaboration she had with a local manufacturer to make and ship sex toys around the world. They were premium goods, I had to say, and she did pretty alright by herself.
“Not exactly.”
The sly smile faded from her face as she sat down in the other chair. “I can tell by your tone and posture that it did not go as planned.”
“Damn, Sabrina,” Adie griped, winking to ease the sting. “Let her speak before you psychoanalyze her.”
Sabrina shrugged. “What? Ninety percent of all communication is though body language and tone of voice. Can’t help but notice – it’s what I went to school for, after all.”
“Then you tell me what happened,” I challenged. “Because I’m still reelin’ from it.”
She cocked her head to the side and got that scanning look in her eyes, the one she always did when the gears in her head were turning. “It didn’t go as planned,” she hypothesized. “That’s for damn sure. And…hmm. It’s weird. It’s like you’re hidin’ something.”
Oh my God. She might not’ve known I’d seen Gerald in the buff, but she knew something was up that I was hesitant to reveal. “Alright, alright – no mind-readin’.”
“Then what happened?” Adie asked. “It wasn’t him?”
I shrugged. “So he says. I strolled in there with the letter in hand and he looked me right in the eyes and said he didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“And you believe him?” Adie inquired.
“He just doesn’t strike me as a liar. He’s got the motivation, sure, but those Walkers aren’t exactly the sneaky types.”
“And I’ve talked to him more than a few times,” Sabrina commented. “There’re tons of tells for when someone’s lyin’.”
“Oh really?” Adie questioned, eyeing her dubiously. “Like what? Might come in handy when I’m on the next date with a guy who’s braggin’ about his job.”
“Like looking to the side,” she said after chuckling. “If you ask someone about something and they glance away, that’s a big tell. They’re accessing the creative parts of the brain – the ones you need for lyin’. And repeating the question, that’s another one too. ‘Did you call the Fire Marshal’?” she lowered her voice to impersonate Gerald’s booming, deep tone. “’Uh, what? Did I call the Fire Marshal’?”
Despite everything, I couldn’t help but laugh with Adie.
“And there’s ways you can tell someone’s being truthful.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Gerald’s got ‘em all.”
She grinned like a Cheshire cat. “He sure does. He’s got open body language that shows he’s confident and not hidin’ anything, and he looks you right in the eye when he’s talkin’ to you. Not exactly a psychological term, but he’s what I’d call a ‘straight-shooter’.”
“Well, he told me he didn’t have anything to do with the call. So I guess I believe him.” I picked up the letter and looked it over, as if it might have good news on it all of a sudden. With a sigh, I tossed it back onto the desk. “Not like it would’ve done a damn bit of good if it had been him,” I said. “The damage’s been done. Unless we can scrape together the cash and find a contractor to put in the new exits, we’re closed until further notice.”
“Are you serious?” Adie asked, shocked.
“We stay open and it’s only a matter of time before the city finds out,” I informed her. “And as much as we can’t afford to do the work, we definitely can’t afford to pay a massive fine.”
Sabrina shook her head, trying to think of something. “Well, we’ve still got my dating service. And the sex toy shop. It’s not a ton of money, but it might help a little.”
“I can’t ask you to tap into that,” I said, shaking my head. “Those are your businesses.”
“Maybe so, but I run them out of here. And I’m not gonna stand aside and let our B&B fail before it’s even had a chance to get off the ground.”
I smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Sabrina.”
“What about your money, though?” she asked. “The cash you’ve saved from your job in New York.”
“Getting down to the last little bit,” I confessed. “Went through just about all of it getting this place open, and we’ve yet to turn a major profit.” I put my head in my hands. “God, this is bad.”
Sabrina shook her head. “Not bad at all – we’ll tighten our belts and do whatever it takes to get the B&B back open.”
“There’s more.”
“More?” my friends asked at the same time.
“The additions – we’ll have to totally remodel the downstairs to fit them in. One of the cool things about this building was that it had that old-school charm, you know? But now we’ll have to smash down walls to add fire exists, along with those ugly exit signs required by law.”
“It’ll be OK,” Adie assured, chipper as ever. “We’ll make it work.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” I said. “I’m not about to give up.”
“Same here,” Sabrina agreed.
“But still, this is rough. They say most small businesses don’t survive the first year, and I’m startin’ to see why.”
Adie’s eyes widened as if she’d realized something majorly important. With lightning-quick speed, she snatched the letter up and scanned it with her bright blue eyes.
“What?” I asked.
“Yes!” She turned the letter in her hands and tapped on a chunk of words. “Right here – it says we have to close down, but only adjoining properties. Meaning, properties connected to the B&B.”
Sabrina and I shared a look, one that suggested we both knew where she was going with this. “Right,” Sabrina said. “And your restaurant’s not connected – it’s not technically on the same lot.”
I nodded, sitting up. “That’s right – the violation doesn’t apply to Adie’s.”
Adie nodded. “And it’s a newer building, remember? That means it’ll be up to code.”
Relief washed over me. “Which means we can keep it open while the B&B’s closed.”
“How much have we been making from Adie’s, anyway?” Sabrina asked.
“Well, not a ton,” Adie answered. “And most of the business we do is for the B&B. But I’m hoping once word of mouth spreads, we’ll have more people coming in from Idylwood and Patterson and every other town around here.”
I’d opened my laptop while Adie had been talking, and the income stream from Adie’s hadn’t been all that great. “It’s been getting better by the month,” I murmured, my eyes on the spreadsheet’s bottom line. “But right now, it’s barely what we need.”
“But it’s income,” Sabrina pointed out. “And if we’re careful it’ll keep us afloat until we can get the rest of this sorted out.”
“Right,” I said, feeling a touch better about the situation. “Still got a lot to worry about, but at least imminent closure’s not part of it.”
A mischievous look flashed on Adie’s face – the look she’d always get when there was gossip to discuss.
“Alright,” I said, giving in. “Let’s hear it.”
“Nothing,” she said. “I mean, now that we figured out the diner can stay open, what else is goin’ on? The thing that Sabrina said you were hidin’?”
Sabrina’s eyes narrowed, and I knew there’d be no point in pretending there wasn’t something to talk about – especially with her spiel about knowing when someone was lying.
“When I went in to talk to Gerald, he’d just woken up. And apparently he likes sleepin’ in the buff.”
Both women raised their eyebrows, and Sabrina grinned broadly as she said, “I like where this is goin’.”
“Well, he threw a towel on when I came in, so most of the goods were on display.”
“Oh my God,” Adie crowed. “I’m guessin’ his bod looks just as good out of his cowboy shirt as it does in it?”
“Maybe. OK, for sure. And when we got to talkin’, I got a little…distracted by it, told him to throw somethin’ else on. He did, but in the shuffle the towel got, you know…” I made a sweeping down gesture with my hands, and the eyes of my friends lit up as I did.
“Wait,” Sabrina interrupted, gaping. “You mean you saw…”
“Everything.”
“Everything?” Adie squealed.
“Everything.” I separated each syllable.
The two of them regarded one another for a long moment, big smiles on their faces, before turning their attention back to me.
“And was he…?” Sabrina prompted.
I sighed. “Of course he was.”
“Give us a hint,” Adie said. She held up her two palms facing one another, slowly moving them apart. “Just tell me when to stop.”
“You’re really gonna ask me to guess the size of his dick? Doesn’t that strike you as a little unprofessional?”
She kept on grinning. “We can make an exception just this once.” Adie kept on moving her hands apart, and when she reached about the length, I sighed again and spoke.
“There.”
“Daaamn,” Adie bellowed, staring at her hands.
“That’s impressive,” Sabrina added. “Might need to see if I can get him to do a casting – could be a good model for a new toy.”
“No way,” I said. “No chance he finds out y’all know what happened.” I glanced at the clock, noting that the day was getting on. “Alright, let’s get back to work. Adie, get the restaurant open, and let’s do more to get the word out about it. And Sabrina, you hold down the fort while I look into the city issue.”
The women gave their approval of the plan and were soon off.
And of, course, as soon as I was alone, all I could think about was Gerald and all the things I wanted to do to him and his giant cock.
Chapter 3
GERALD
As entertaining as the whole towel incident might’ve been, it didn’t stay on my mind for long. After Crystal left, I’d hopped into the shower and started doing the kind of thinking you only seem able to do when you’ve got a jet of hot water blasting down onto your face.
It was strange – why the hell was the Fire Marshal all over Crystal and her business? Sure, there were codes and all that, but cities usually worked with small business owners a bit – I’d known plenty of guys from the military who’d opened shops of their own, and those kinds of infractions usually got dealt with over the first year. And a little at a time – not all at once, as seemed to be the case with Crystal.
&n
bsp; It smelled rotten. Couldn’t put my finger on why, but I felt it in my gut. And I’d always been the sort of man to trust my gut.
After throwing on some clothes, I decided to swing by Idylwood City Hall and see if I could find anything out. Crystal, being the tough, self-sufficient woman, she was likely wouldn’t take too kindly to my asking questions on her behalf. But that didn’t matter – if something was afoot, I was going to find out what.
No other people were staying in the B&B, so I saw no one on my way out. I decided to head out the back so as not to bump into Crystal and be forced into a conversation about where I was going and what I was doing.
My truck, a coal-black F-350 built like a tank, was parked out front, so I circled the building quickly. I hopped in and turned the engine over, the deafening growl of the thing never failing to bring a smile to my face.
I glanced at the B&B as I pulled away. It was a quaint place – three stories, red-and-white colors, a beautiful location overlooking the river, the Rio Rica, that snaked through town. It was a charming combination of a Texas ranch and a rustic cottage and made perfect sense as a B&B. I’d hate to see the place have to close because of some bureaucratic bullshit.
I pulled onto the road that led into town and gave my cousin Chance a dial on the speakerphone. It rang a couple of times before he picked up.
“Yo, cousin!” he said, energy and eagerness in his voice. “What’s the word?”
“Not much. Just headin’ into town to check on some things.”
He laughed. “I’ll bet. And let me guess – the nature of those things is top-secret.”
I grinned. “For the time being. But I got somethin’ I want to ask you before I get to it.”
“What’s that?”
“Stupid fuckin’ question, I know, but just to give me some peace of mind – you know the Idylwood B&B? The one three women in town just opened?
“Sure – been the talk of Patterson. And Rainbow Canyons.”
“Right. Well, they’re havin’ some issues with the town comin’ down on them hard with code violations and shit.”