by Eden Connor
"There are only about twenty acres of those trees, Cynda. That's not enough to interest a big food processor in buying the crop, if that's what you're thinking."
"Twenty now. Plenty of seeds out there to make trees, though. I'm thinkin' maybe I might work on some recipes. Maybe we could pick the fruit so I could put some up to have to experiment with?"
His pulse took a leap. She wants to stay. Is she pleading for more than a peach with obvious drawbacks? It was obvious she cared about something he took for granted. Before he could decide what to say, she coiled the ends of the ribbon around her forefingers, stretching it taut.
"Daniel, unzip those pants."
He unzipped and freed his cock from his boxers, stroking himself while he watched her carefully fold the end of the ribbon in half lengthwise and touch it to the end of her tongue before threading a bead from her hair onto the ribbon.
When she'd pushed the bead to the middle of the bit of silk, she gave his hand a light slap. "Did I say you could touch yourself? When I want you hard, I'll get you that way."
Their gazes locked and he saw the plea in her eyes. The way she squinted a bit told him she was measuring his reaction. Dan tucked his hands under his head. He'd never wanted her more or wanted less to give up control, but that wary look on her face said this was some kind of test and he didn't want to fail.
Two beads, then a third went onto the ribbon. Figuring out her intent, Dan began to battle his growing arousal, pleased his cock wasn't fully hard when she got the tenth bead on the band and tied the now-studded ribbon tightly into a bow around his shaft. He had to admire the ingenuity of her impromptu cock ring. The beads sank into the base of his shaft. The stricture made him hard in a hurry; her hand did the rest. She cupped her palm around the head, caressing it so softly his hips jerked upward involuntarily, seeking more.
At her warning glance, he laced his fingers together to stop from taking charge. Her strokes were slow and sure. The ache in his cock seemed to expand until it echoed in his chest. Dan held his breath when she moved back until her ass was past his knees and lowered her head. The kiss she pressed to his cockhead sent a tremor through him that seemed out of proportion to her gentle gesture, chasing his breath away again. His gaze was riveted to her full lips, but to his dismay, she went no further than that one sweet touch.
When she gathered her dress around her waist and moved until she was poised above his cock, he almost lost his fight to let her take him the way she wanted. She was wet when he pierced her and the little devil lowered her body so slowly he growled with frustration. Leaning forward, she grasped his forearms and finally took him all the way in.
She whimpered, a tiny sound he felt to his bones. He owed Colton an apology, he knew, suddenly thinking of a time when his brother had been desperate to find a way to make Lila commit to him, and Dan's lame advice had been "keep being you". He was gripped by a need to be so much more to Cynda than he thought he was capable of, and mixed up with that thought was more sardonic laughter from Rafe.
"Fuck me," he begged, to keep from begging her for something else.
She rode him slow and easy until he thought he'd explode from impatience. "I'm definitely going to spank you for this later," he promised her through clenched teeth. The flash of excitement in her eyes sealed his fate.
He'd never figure out how he could fall when he was already on the floor, but he tumbled into a space he'd never known could exist. She laid her upper body against his chest though her hips never stilled. He felt every breath, every ripple of pleasure inside her until she drove them both senseless. With his last coherent thought he wrapped his arms around her and nudged her cheek with his chin.
"Kiss me," he demanded, because it just wasn't possible he could feel so much for her and she feel nothing in return. He'd make her feel it, if he had to change the world. She tilted her lips up to his and his heart and head went spinning again.
"Hey, how many beds are in this house, anyway? Seven? Eight?"
Dan jerked, turning his head far enough to see Colton standing in the archway. "Get me the hammer," he growled in exasperation to Cynda, referring to the last time they'd been interrupted, by Jonah, and he'd joked about nailing the back door shut. Her body shook with her giggles, telling him she remembered, too. He marveled over the delightful sensation of being hard and buried inside a woman who was laughing at a private joke only the two of them shared. This feels nice.
"Oh, hell no. Get it your damn self," Colton retorted. "Last time I saw someone open a drawer around here, a biiig dildo jumped out. I still can't sleep nights for wondering what kind of damage a colony of dildo gremlins can do in the dark."
"I always heard penis envy was painful. Does Tylenol help?" Cynda asked through her laughter.
Dan hastily yanked her dress down. She tightened around his cock. He didn't want this to end, didn't want to deal with his brother's questions about why all the police cars were outside, or spend hours speculating about what that bone might mean. He thought he saw the same frustration mirrored in Cynda's expression. She seemed in no hurry to get off his cock. Then he heard Lila speak.
"Jonah's nearly completed his inventory of your refrigerator contents. We'll go supervise that right now." When he heard her whisper harshly, "Thank God it's your turn to answer Jonah's questions. You get to explain what a dildo is," Dan began laughing, in spite of the storm he felt brewing in their lives. Hearing Lila's feminine concerns and having Cynda wrapped around him made him start to believe that whatever was coming, he might survive it.
"Get those really long nails like they use to put gutters on a house," Cynda muttered. "I'll drive 'em in myself."
"I'll buy you a nail gun," he promised, pulling her head down for another kiss. His uninvited guests could wait.
Chapter Twenty-One
"Bet some idiot planted another marijuana crop." Cynda studied Eric, who yanked open a cabinet door while he talked. "It's been, what, Dan, 'bout five years since the last dumbass came on our land to do that? That's the first thing I thought when I saw all the cops. Damn fools think 'cause we don't work the farm, we—"
"Lila's pregnant," Jonah burst out.
"Lila's what?" Cynda saw Daniel's mouth fall open. Eric dropped the cup he'd just taken out of the cabinet. The plastic tumbler bounced over her foot. She suppressed a smile, delighted that Lila had had the foresight to arrange for tests of Colton's sperm before her gynecologist's appointment since their shocked looks proved the older woman right. Cynda had no trouble seeing that everyone in his family believed Colton's late case of mumps had left him sterile.
"Pregnant," Colton repeated Jonah's statement, squeezing Lila's shoulder and planting yet another kiss on her cheek. "The baby's due in February."
"But… how?" Daniel demanded.
The back door slammed and Cynda realized Jonah had gone outside. Colton repeated the doctor's explanation that the body could repair itself and admitted he'd been shown his active "swimmers" under a microscope.
"Good God, Colton, you didn't fuck around, did you, little brother?"
Daniel had obviously been doing the mental math. Math Lila had done for Cynda while they languished in jail. The pair had only gotten together this past April, once Colton realized Lila's husband had died. Colton grinned broadly. Lila's cheeks turned a deep pink but Cynda saw the concern on the other woman's face. She was looking at the back door.
"Let me go," Cynda hastened to say. "Jonah and I might as well get better acquainted, if I'm going to be your nanny, Lila."
"We have a nanny?" Colton asked, his brows arching.
"Why do you need a nanny?" Eric demanded. "You don't work."
"I most certainly do work," Lila retorted. "Oh my God, Eric, you sound like the Walkers."
"It's just a hobby. Besides, you'll have to stop refinishing, if you're pregnant," Eric argued. "Those chemicals are harmful to the baby. So, you don't need a nanny."
"If she wants a nanny, she can have one," Colton informed his brother. "We
need to get started adding a nursery onto my house. Can you get with Lila and figure out what she wants and draw me a plan, Eric?"
Eric shook his head, his stunned expression melting into one of sadness. "I'm good, little brother, but even I can't figure out what a woman wants." Lila used her middle finger to scratch her nose, making Eric grin. "Of course I can. I drew your original house plan, didn't I?"
Daniel frowned. "Nanny? A job like that… is that what you want, Cynda?"
Cynda realized her mistake immediately when all eyes turned to her. She'd cast herself into the role of a servant. She'd spoken honestly to Lila in jail. Judging from the brothers' expressions, she couldn't work for Lila and be Daniel's long-term anything. The toe of her shoe hit the cup Eric dropped when she stood. The hollow sound it made skidding across the floor matched the sudden emptiness in her breast.
You can only control whether or not they change you. Daniel had said that to her that first day. She'd wear his dresses, braid her hair, play his games. Doing those superficial things made her more than she'd been before, somehow, although she couldn't put her finger on why she felt that way. But she couldn't deny that essential part of her that needed to nurture. It felt as though each word drove a nail into the door she felt closing between them. "Yes, it's exactly what I want."
"Need to draw up plans for two rooms, Eric. In case my nanny wants to live in," Lila added, looking at Cynda and smiling. Colton and Eric's brows went up, but Daniel's drew together in a snarl over his forehead and the piercing look he gave Cynda literally hurt. She set her chair carefully under the table before straightening her shoulders and walking slowly to the back door, the heels on her shoes ringing out her folly with every step she took.
Her cheeks were so hot she barely noticed the still-scorching temperature when she stepped out on the porch. Cynda tugged off her shoes, setting them neatly side-by-side to the left of the back door, in case she had to hunt for the child. Her too-young mother might've thought it cute to give the infant Cynda a middle name like Rella, but she was always stubbing her toe on the fact that there weren't any black women in those fairy tales her mom read to her as a child.
Looking around for Jonah, Cynda saw the leaves on the Angel's Trumpet tree in the large pot at the end of the porch shake violently. The kid was standing in the grass beside the porch, his head and shoulders visible above the railing. Through the spindles, she spied peach-tinted bits fluttering to the ground as he shredded the flower.
Cynda looked past Jonah to the spacious yard and the orchards beyond. Although it hurt, she pictured herself chasing the lightning bugs that would come out in a few hours, putting them in a baby-food jar for a few minutes to show a caramel-skinned child whose wide eyes matched Daniel's. A child he'd pick up and spoil when he came home from work.
He'd asked her once what her dreams were. She thought the biggest dream any woman could have was to be a mother. She longed for a man who'd be just her man, not some player who'd have a bunch of other women on the side. She wanted a man who'd work, not some jerk who was always getting fired because his job description was smaller than his ego. Someone reliable and solid, like her Grandpa Earl had been. But though he'd loved Grams to pieces, Coralinne had had to work to help make ends meet.
Cynda could admit her dream had gotten bigger in the last week. Maybe because lying on that tiny bunk in an airless room, she hadn't had anything to distract from her misery whenever Lila slept, except her dreams.
She'd imagined living here with Daniel. She wouldn't let those peaches rot on the trees. Plenty of unemployed folk would be happy to come pick them to have the food. The local ministers would help her get the word out that there were peaches for the taking, maybe one day a week and on Saturdays.
Except for the peaches in the orchard at the top of the mountain. Those she'd sell herself. Her time working in food service taught her that the fancier restaurants had chefs that wanted to put signature items on their menus. What better way than with an exclusive fruit they could only get from her? Daniel didn't care about those peaches, but he might help her figure out what had to be done to assure a good crop of the special peach.
In jail, Lila had talked of her business and the delight she took in outsmarting those who looked past the stuff she bought, but turned around and came to her to buy. Cynda could relate to that. She'd started to believe she could make her dreams and his grandfather's come true at the same time. If she could find a way to market that peach, she'd be somebody, someone visible, and not just because she'd be by Daniel's side, but because she believed in herself and the dark-fleshed peach enough to make it happen. Raising peaches wouldn't interfere with raising Lila's baby. She'd hire people to do the labor. She'd be management.
If Daniel loved her, that is. If she could ever be enough for him, enough to make him willing to endure the slurs that would be sure to come their way, or the friends they'd both lose for choosing to be with someone of a different race.
If.
The yard was so still, it seemed she heard her heart break, but she wasn't the only one hurting. Distress emanated from every line of the slim body of the motherless teenager who was probably thinking a baby meant Lila and Colton no longer wanted him.
Quietly, she took a seat in the rocker closest to that end of the porch, tucking one foot under her and pushing off against the porch with the toes of the other. "When's baseball practice start?"
He gave the bloom a vicious twist. "Next week. But Lila won't be my coach now."
"Why's that?"
He snorted, looking up at her. She could tell from his expression he thought she was an idiot. "The baby. Duh. Uncle C already told her she can't. He's afraid she'll get hit by a foul ball or something and lose their baby." His voice broke. "He's real excited."
Cynda had learned a few things about the older woman while they'd been locked up together. "So, she does everything your Uncle C says, huh?" She knew Lila Walker had her heart set on coaching Jonah's team.
The young boy blinked at her owlishly. "Well… not everything."
She forced herself to give the child a smile. "That's what I thought. I hear she's been lettin' you drive even though Colton said he'd handle teachin' you."
His eyes rounded with surprise. Jonah lowered his voice to a whisper. "Just from Pete's grave to my mom's, when I go to the cemetery with her. She says I should be able to find my mother when I need her."
Cynda imagined the bright yellow crime scene tape the police had put up around the place where they'd found the skeleton. It wasn't visible from the farmhouse, but she knew it was out there, in the woods, and her heart ached—for herself, for Daniel and his brothers, as well as for the young man tearing up the flowers. She understood how Colton must be feeling. To get something he thought he'd never have made him want to hold on tighter.
"I'd have to agree with her 'bout that. If you hadn't already told me your mama was dead, I'd have thought Lila was your mama. She loves you. She's told me so about twenty times already. That baby won't take your place. She has Charlie but she loves you too, right? Mothers do that, they just add a room in their heart when a new child comes into their life." She chuckled. "That's why a woman is never as small as she was once a baby comes. That extra bit of weight is just our way of makin' room for a bigger heart, my Grams says."
"Yeah, I guess." He didn't sound enthusiastic, but at least he'd stopped killing defenseless flowers.
Honey chile', every woman's gonna pick her own pain. Grams said that too. She was still wet with Daniel's seed, but it wasn't the right time for her to get pregnant, so she wasn't concerned. Still, at that moment, she could almost hate Lila, but she hated herself more for her fleeting thought that maybe she could trap him into her dream by making a baby he might not want. No, she wouldn't do that. That would only make her end up bitter because she was raising a child alone.
If she couldn't have the whole dream she wouldn't try to steal part of it. She'd take Lila's job and try to make being around the man she loved be
enough. Maybe, somehow, he'd fall for her as hard as she'd fallen for him.
If and maybe. The weight of those words seemed unbearable but the glimmer of hope they lent seemed to flicker in her heart like the mysterious glow of the lightning bugs.
"Soon as you lay eyes on your baby cousin, you're gonna love it," she said, hoping he couldn't hear the catch in her voice. "I'm no coach, but my brother taught me to catch and throw. I played softball in high school. Maybe we can throw a ball around tomorrow, after you register for school. Come inside and see Jacques. He's so fat he looks like a little butterball. His eyes and ears aren't open yet and his nose is still pink. He's beautiful."
"Wash your hands first."
Cynda jumped. Daniel was standing in the open kitchen door.
"The whole plant's poisonous," he added. "Be sure you use soap."
Looking at him right now made her feel too raw. She felt his gaze but she stared past him as she rocked, suddenly realizing all the police cars were gone. The only vehicles in the drive were her car and his brother's trucks.
Will the police drag their feet getting the skeleton out of the ground because Daniel called me his girlfriend? Is there that much hate in the world?
Thinking there wasn't seemed every bit as foolish as Lila thinking confronting the Klan would make them go away. There was a remote possibility the skeleton was someone who'd simply died, but she knew it was more likely that person had been murdered. So where were the police?
Jonah slouched up the steps, looking at his hands. Daniel moved out of the way, letting him pass. "Why grow a flower that's poisonous?" the kid asked.
"It's nice to look at, and it smells good."
It seemed the man had his grandfather's weakness for plants with a disagreeable downside. She followed Jonah into the kitchen, trying not to look at Daniel as she passed him. She wouldn't apologize for who she was or what she wanted.
"But I don't want a minivan," Lila was saying.
"Aw, Lila, Dan will paint flames on it for ya." Eric laughingly offered his brother's services. To Cynda's surprise, Eric tugged on a braid when she passed by. "Know a good store that sells crash helmets for infants?"