He climbed from the bed, trying his best not to awaken her. Naked, he walked to the living room, picked up his jeans, and slipped them on. Barefoot and shirtless, Kade checked the interior of the house to make sure there was no damage before he went outside into nothing but brilliant sunshine. The storm had come and passed. He sat down on the damp top step of the porch before he checked for any outside damage.
He was torn. He wanted to remain true to that deep and profound love he had for Reema, but he couldn't imagine his life without Garcelle. Reema was gone. She wasn't coming back. Being with Garcelle was not like having an affair. He hadn't cheated on his wife.
So why did he feel like he had?
Kade had stopped smoking back in his late twenties, but at that moment, he would have slapped a pit bull to get his hands on a cigarette.
A black car rolled into the yard. Kade squinted as the power window opened and he looked into the face of Mr. Rico Suave. Kade flexed his shoulders because there was no mistaking the anger on the other man's face.
"Is Garcelle here?"Joaquin asked as he climbed out of the car.
"She's sleeping," Kade told him as he tilted his head to the side to eye him.
"Who are you?"
"Garcelle's guest. Who are you?" Kade countered.
"Garcelle's boyfriend, "Joaquin volleyed back, with emphasis.
Kade smiled as he squinted his eyes against the sun. "I'm pretty confident that's not true."
The man's olive complexion turned beet red in anger. "You son of a bitch!"
Kade rose to his feet asJoaquin came charging at him. He ducked a blow and followed through with a powerful uppercut, which sent Joaquin flying backwards into a puddle in the middle of the yard. When Joaquin jumped quickly to his feet and came charging at him, Kade leaped down from the porch and put his dukes up, ready to meet him head-on.
Garcelle rolled over in bed, with a deep moan of satisfaction. Stretching her limbs in the sweatsoaked and tangled sheets, she smiled at what she'd shared with Kade last night. His words. His lovemaking. His very presence.
She sat up. "Kade," she called out as she kicked the sheets from her legs and rose, naked, from the bed.
Was he gone? Did he regret his words? Did he regret the lovemaking? Did he regret ever coming there?
Garcelle grabbed a football jersey nightshirt and pulled it over her head as she hurried from the bedroom. She frowned at the sound of raised voices. Her eyes widened when she looked out the front door and saw Kade and Joaquin fighting on the muddy ground.
She cursed them both in Spanish as she burst out the door and leapt from the stairs, landing in a puddle and sending mud flecks and brown water splashing up onto her legs and under her short nightshirt. She raced to jump in between them. They jumped to their feet on either side of her, with their chests heaving. They were covered from head to foot in mud.
"Are you two kidding me?" she asked, looking back and forth between them. "I mean seriously. Seriously!"
People were out on their porches and in their yards, watching the spectacle. Garcelle could just spit in frustration at the two of them.
"Kade, go inside," she told him in a hard voice as she pointed to the door.
`Joaquin, go home," she told him as she pointed to his car.
Kade stayed still.
Joaquin's black eyes turned cold as they took in the nudeness of her body in the nightshirt, which barely covered her buttocks. "You screwing this fool while you and me are working on getting back together?"
Kade barreled toward him, and Garcelle turned and placed her hands on his chest. She could have died from embarrassment. "Go home, Joaquin. I will call you later," she called over her shoulder.
Joaquin laughed bitterly as his face twisted in anger. 'What's this? Payback 'cause I dumped your ass?"
"You are a real asshole," Kade shouted as he picked Garcelle up and moved her out of his path. Kade took two long strides, then picked Joaquin up by his shirt and held him high in the air. "She said, `Go home."'
"How's it feel getting my leftovers?" Joaquin asked snidely as he laughed in Kade's face.
`Joaquin!" Garcelle called out sharply.
Kade turned and tossed Joaquin onto the hood of his car, with a loud thud.
The mud on his clothes sent Joaquin sliding off the hood and back into the mud. He scrambled to his feet and climbed into his car. "No need for your trickin' ass to call me. Fuck you, Garcelle," he called through his window before he reversed out of the yard, sending mud flying at Kade and Garcelle, and sped away.
Kade and Garcelle faced each other, covered from heat to foot with mud. "Would this be a spa treatment?" Garcelle asked as she used her fingers to wipe some of the mud from her face.
Kade smiled, and his white teeth showed through the mud on his own face. "I doubt it."
They started laughing together.
Garcelle moved over to him, walking with her legs spread open to keep the mud from making them stick together. She reached up to spike his hair with the mud before she placed her hands up on his shoulders. "He wasn't my boyfriend. Well, not anymore," she told him as he brought his muddy arms around her waist.
"I know that," he said.
She tilted her head back to look up at him. She smiled as he bent his head to kiss her. "Eskimo kiss," she said.
"At least the lights are on now, and we can wash," Kade said as he nuzzled the tip of his nose against hers.
In rural states like South Carolina, water was supplied by a well, and without power, the well's pump didn't work. Therefore, if there were no lights, there was no water.
"Let's go back to your house," Garcelle offered. "We can just lay around all day naked."
Kade paused. "I . . . uh, have a better idea. Kadina's gone for the weekend, and I can afford to take a mini-vacation, so let's drive into Charleston and make a weekend of it. Take in a show, get some dinner, go back to the room. .
"That sounds real nice, Kade," she told him, with honesty. "So nice that I might just kiss you with the mud."
"I might just let you."
"Let's go in. The neighbors have enough to talk about without me flashing them."
"After the shower, can we get a replay of last night?" he asked as he swung her up into his arms to carry her into the house.
Garcelle's smoky eyes shined through the mud as she smiled at him saucily. "After? Why not during?"
Kade walked into the house and closed the door with his foot.
Bianca tried Mimi's home number and cell phone number for the thousandth time since Mimi returned to Atlanta two weeks ago. Like always, it rang several times and then went to voice mail. She bit her bottom lip as she put her chin in her hand and looked out of the home office she shared with Kahron.
Something was definitely up with Mimi. Definitely.
She started to call Kahron, but she knew he was in horse heaven at the horse trials in Georgia. Besides, she loved her husband, and she knew that he adored her, but complications in her friendship with Mimi definitely were not uppermost in his mind ... especially this particular weekend.
She sighed as she looked down at her schedule for the day. It was pretty much clear. Maybe she would play a little hooky herself.
She called Garcelle's house phone, but it just rang and rang. For Christmas, she was going to treat the woman to a cell phone. "Hello. It's 2007, for God's sake," Bianca muttered as she picked up the phone and dialed Kaitlyn's cell phone. Now Kaitlyn, on the other hand, didn't see the necessity of a landline phone, because she never went anywhere without her bejeweled Sidekick.
Bianca rolled her eyes as Kaitlyn's line went straight to voice mail. "I am enjoying life to the fullest, and I know you wouldn't want to disturb that, so leave me a message, and I'll get back to when my head is out of the clouds. Holla!"
"Kaitlyn. I got one word for you, heifer. Shopping. Bet that gets you out of the clouds. Call me." Bianca dropped the phone back on the hook.
Her thoughts went back to Mimi. She bit her lip and
ran her fingers through her fresh straw set before she snatched up the phone to dial her father.
"King Ranch."
"Dad, uh ... uh, have you talked to Mimi?" she asked, feeling nervous as she played with her diamond hoop earrings.
"Of course. Why? Haven't you?"
"No, I've been calling her, and she isn't answering or returning my calls."
The line went quiet.
Bianca unsnapped an earring and snapped it back on. "Okay. Spill. What's going on?"
"I'm not getting into this. You two work it out," he said gruffly.
"Work what out?" Bianca snapped.
"This is all I will say. You're my child, and I love you, but you should be more careful about what you say, because you never know who can hear you."
"Daddy, what are you talking about ... ?"
I love my friend, but I don't think she's right for my father. The words she'd spoken in the kitchen to Garcelle came back to her. But there was no way Mimi had heard her ... was there?
Bianca winced as she dropped her head into her hand. "Shit."
"Shit is right, Bianca."
Bianca hung up the phone. How could she fix it when Mimi wouldn't even talk to her?
Zorrie ran her hands through her hair as she slammed the phone down. Kade wasn't answering his house phone or his cell phone. "Damn, damn, damn, damn," she swore as she banged her fist against the top of her desk.
This morning she'd received a call and had to return to work. She hated that she had to cut her trip short. It couldn't be avoided if she wanted to remain the vice president of human resources for one of the largest wireless companies in the country.
She thought of the steam rising between Kade and Garcelle, and she could literally scream in frustration. She had to get back down there. She didn't give a damn if she had to fake a major illness and take long-term sick leave. She would head back to Holtsville, South Carolina, as soon as possible, and she was going to claim her ultimate prize ... Kade Strong. She just had to.
"This little piggy went to the market ... This little piggy stayed home ... This little piggy had roast beef... This little piggy had none ... And this little piggy cried, `Wee! Wee! Wee!' all the way home."
Garcelle laughed as Kade's strong hand tickled her foot as they sat facing each other in the Jacuzzi tub filled with frothy bubbles. She tried to free her foot from his hand. "Quit, Kade. Let the little piggies go. I'm ticklish," she said, slapping her hand against the water to send some flying in his direction.
"If you get used to my touch, your feet won't be so ticklish anymore," he told her as he began to massage the soles of her feet. He laughed huskily before he wiggled his brows and then sucked her toes.
"Is that so?" Garcelle sighed, her heavily hooded eyes on him as she bit her bottom lip and gasped for breath.
"Like that?" he asked thickly as he lowered her other foot to rub up and down the length of his hard and long erection.
Garcelle panted. "Love ... it."
Kade slid his hands down to her thighs and then jerked her forward until her knees were on either side of him, causing water to splash over the tub's sides to the floor. "I suddenly hate bubbles," he told her, hating that they covered her nakedness from his eyes.
Garcelle reached beneath the bubbles and drew his hands toward her, to her open core. "I don't know. Personally, I like feeling things even more than I like seeing things sometimes. You know?" she asked softly and teasingly, with a naughty laugh.
Kade palmed her intimacy. "And some things feel damn good."
"I know a hands-free way that makes some things feel even better," she said, climbing onto his lap.
"Great minds think alike."
They laughed huskily together. Then Kade reached up and drew her head down for a deep and tender kiss.
Brrrnnnggg.
Lisha and Kael exchanged an exaggerated look at the sound of the phone ringing. Kadina lay on the floor watching her favorite Barbie DVD on the television. "If that is Zorrie again, I am going to scream," Lisha whispered to her husband as she reached for the cordless phone sitting between them on a small, round wooden table. "She's been calling all day, like she's crazy."
Brrrnnnggg.
Lisha looked at the caller ID and shook her head. "It's her."
"Don't answer it," Kael said in a calm voice as he read the local paper.
The front door opened and closed, and Kaityln breezed into the den all short skirts and high heels. "What's the deal, my people?"
Brrrnnnggg.
Kadina rolled over onto her back. "Hi, Auntie Kaitlyn. "
"Hey, Li'l Diva," Kaitlyn said, bending over to tickle Kadina's tummy. Kadina burst into a fit of giggles.
Brrrnnnggg.
"Should Ianswer the phone?" Kaitlyn asked.
"Nope," Kael said as he shook the wrinkles out of the paper.
"Kaitlyn, did you get another tattoo?" Lisha asked, rising from her chair, walking over, and lifting up the back of her daughter's shirt.
Brrrnnnggg.
"Me and my girls rode to Savannah yesterday to get them. We just got back." Kaitlyn pulled down the waistband of her jean skirt to show the scroll, with her name in the middle, at the base of her spine.
Lisha's face was filled with disapproval. "You know, if you have kids, you can't give them blood, because of those things."
Brrrnnnggg.
"Speaking of kids ... I've been dreaming about fish," said Lisha as she gave her rambunctious daughter a hard stare.
"Don't look at me," Kaitlyn immediately protested.
It was an old wives' tale in the South that when someone dreamt of fish, someone in their family was pregnant.
Brrrnnnggg.
"Kael, remember the last time I dreamt of fish, our little grandbaby over there came seven months later," said Lisha.
"Sure did," replied Kael.
Lisha eyed her daughter again.
Brrrnnnggg
"Who is that, and why won't they hang up?" Kaitlyn asked suddenly, moving over to snatch up the phone.
"Somebody who obviously don't have a bit of good common sense," Kael drawled as he shifted his reading glasses.
"Hello," Kaitlyn said, with more than a little attitude.
"Kaitlyn? Hey. This is Zorrie."
"Zorrie, listen. Uh, you know, usually when I call someone's house and they don't answer after a few rings, I hang up. You know what I'm saying?"
Kael grunted.
"I wanted to check on Kade after the storm. That's all," Zorrie said defensively.
Hot Like Fire (Dafina Contemporary Romance) Page 14