by Linda Mooney
She got no further as he suddenly lunged for her, reaching for the rest of the melon lying on the other side of the quilt. Kimberly shrieked with laughter and fought him for possession. Their tussle was short-lived but long in love.
Chapter Nine
They had done the best they could to remove any leftover residue from their bodies, but Rick knew there were still bits in their hair. Anyone with an observant eye would be able to spot the clingy orange stuff, especially in a good light. He had no doubt Mr. Blakeney had both.
Kimberly drove the microbus to the farmhouse to let him meet the family. It was a mere formality, since the sex hex had proven that he and she were a true love pair, but he was looking forward to finally getting to know everyone. Having grown up as an only child, the idea of being part of a big family had always been a dream of his. He glanced at the old clock in the dash, but the dashboard light was too poor to read it.
“It's just after midnight,” she told him.
Rick pretended to wipe his brow. “Whew! Made it under wire.”
She giggled and reached over to squeeze his thigh. Her touch sent another spark of lust racing directly to the head of his cock, and he could feel the muscle nudging the seam of his jeans. He gave her a warning look. “Careful. I snagged a couple more pumpkins before we left.” He was rewarded with hearty laughter.
After they'd left the pumpkin field, she continued to follow the dirt road. Before long, he could see a two-story house looming in the distance. What appeared to be a hundred lanterns ringed the white clapboard home, set at intervals along the white picket fence. He blinked and stared harder at the lights, wondering what kept them lit, since none of them appeared to have wicks.
As they drove underneath the carport, the front door swung open, and a group of women ran out onto the porch and down the short flight of steps. They were squealing with delight as they rushed out of the gate and surrounded the van. Rick allowed himself to be dragged from his seat as the sisters inundated him and Kimberly with hugs and kisses. He felt like a rock star being mobbed by fans.
The Blakeney sisters led him and Kimberly back into the yard and up to the porch where their patriarch stood with his hands in his pockets. Their giggling and laughter died down, and Rick found himself facing a very imposing figure.
Blakeney was a big man, with wide shoulders and chest, but narrow in the hips and belly. It was obvious Kimberly got her coloring from her father, right down to the eyes. Rick stepped forward, holding out his hand.
“Mr. Blakeney? Hello. My name is Frederick Carr, and I am very much in love with your daughter. With your permission, I want to marry her.”
Manderly Blakeney stared at him with an unreadable expression. Several seconds passed in silence while he studied the young man. Rick remained determined and kept his hand out. Whether or not the older man agreed to Rick's request, or even shook hands, it wouldn't change the way he felt about Kimberly. Nor would it change his plans to marry her.
He started to say as much when Blakeney pulled a hand out of his coveralls pocket and gripped his fingers. But instead of shaking his hand, he covered their grip with his other hand. A trembling smile creased his weathered face.
“You are welcome into our family, Rick. I know you're going to treat my little girl with respect, and you're going to love her unceasingly.”
The man turned to look at Kimberly, who remained surrounded by her sisters. “The hex worked for you this time. Now, the two of you will reap its rewards, and I pray you'll have many years of happiness.” He let go of Rick's hands and opened his arms to embrace his daughter, who hurried up the steps to accept the hug. Rick watched the farmer's unabashed display of love.
“What are we standing out here for?” one sister, the redhead, shouted. “Let's go inside and have some champagne to celebrate!”
The other sisters whooped in agreement, and the one other sister with long black hair like Kimberly's looped an arm around his. She flashed a smile at him.
“Hi! I'm Sandy. I'm Kimmy's twin.”
He glanced at her hair, then her face. Her eyes were a lighter brown, and her features were similar, but she wasn't an identical twin. “Hi, Sandy. You'll be easy to remember,” he greeted her back.
She giggled and brushed bits of dried pumpkin sauce from his shoulder. “You look like you have orange dandruff. Yeah, we're all very different from each other. Trust me, you'll be able to tell us apart very quickly.”
Rick looked around for Kimberly. Instead, he saw a pair of headlights heading up the road, directly for the farmhouse. At the same time, Manderly Blakeney said, “Looks like we have unwanted company.”
Unwanted company? It puzzled him how the man would know that before the driver arrived until he felt a tug on his other arm. Kimberly laced her fingers through his as she watched the vehicle approach. It took another couple of seconds before Rick recognized the car. And the driver.
Booey pulled up behind the microbus and stopped. He jumped out of the car and strode quickly to the gate, but stopped short of opening it and walking in.
“Hey, Rick! Hey, man, I'm glad I found you before something happened.” He motioned for Rick to join him. “Let's go, dude! We're packed and gassed to get out of town!”
“Get out of town? And go where?”
“Back to Chicago, man!”
The man was blatantly drunk. Rick frowned. “Booey, you're smashed. Go back to the inn and sleep it off.”
“Can't.” Booey wobbly shook his head. “I checked us out of that dump. Got our bags packed and in the trunk.”
Rick could feel the burn of anger in his face. He stepped off the porch, but Kimberly's attachment kept him from going any further. “What did you do that for?” he demanded of the man. “Who gave you permission to do that?”
“I did it for your own good!” Booey insisted. He pointed at Kimberly. “I couldn't let you be overtaken by those witches, man!”
“Overtaken?” The word made him laugh. “A lot you know, asshole! Kim and I are getting married, and I don't give a shit whether you approve or not!”
Booey looked confused, inebriated, and dumbfounded that his friend refused to drop everything and hop into the car. He stuffed his hands into his pocket, mumbling something Rick couldn't quite hear.
“Speak up, Booey! What did you say?”
“I said I also called the plant and left a message on the answering machine that we ain't coming back. I told that old man he could take his smelly fish and shove 'em up his ass!”
“Booey! ”
“Well, hell, Rick! Can't you see what's going on? This bitch has put a spell on you! A-a love spell! No telling what else she has planned for you!”
Rick started to snap back when Manderly Blakeney's deep voice carried clear and loud in the still night air. “You're on private property, young man. I advise you to leave before you do or say anything further to upset me or my family.”
“Fuck you, grandpa!” Booey shot back, giving him the finger. “I'm not leaving here until my friend comes with me!”
“I'm not coming with you!” Rick yelled at him. “Better get that through your friggin" head! I'm staying here with Kimberly, and we're getting married! I was going to have you be my best man, but that's obviously not going to happen. So go back to Chicago! Go! Just let me have my duffle first.”
Booey gave him a bleary smile. Rick could tell the man had loaded up on more than liquid courage before driving out here.
“You want your duffle? Then come get it.” He pulled the keys out of his pocket and held them up, giving them a little shake to tease him.
Rick started to take up Booey on his offer, but Kimberly squeezed his hand harder and pulled on his arm to hold him back. “No, Rick. Don't.”
“I'm not letting him ruin this for us,” Rick told her.
She shook her head. “He's planning something. I can feel it.”
Patting her hand, he tried to reassure her. “He's three sheets to the wind. Plus I can whip his ass any day whe
n he's sober. I'll be okay, Kim. Let me get my duffle, and bid him goodbye. It's the least I can do after nearly twenty years of friendship.”
He slowly extradited his fingers from hers. Patting her arm, Rick turned and headed for the gate where Booey waited. “All right, Booey. Hand them over.” Rick stepped up to his friend and held out his palm.
Booey grinned, stepping back and away. “Come and get them, witch fucker.”
Rick made a grab for them. Booey's reactions were too dulled to jerk them out of range, and Rick snatched the keys. But Booey's grip was like a bulldog refusing to relinquish its favorite bone. They struggled briefly for the key ring.
Rick could feel Booey quickly weakening, and tried to twist the man's wrist to make him drop the keys. He didn't expect the man to suddenly duck underneath his arms and head butt him directly in the stomach.
Rick heard someone scream his name in the distance as he bent over, gasping for breath. Pain flared in his head as Booey rammed his elbow into his temple, and the ground started to spin. He dropped to his knees, his stomach heaving.
“I'm gonna get you out of here, Rick,” Booey muttered, grabbing him under the arms. “Get you away from these goddamn witches. When you wake up, you'll understand. You'll thank me.”
Rick could feel himself being dragged, but the blow to his head had stunned him. He couldn't think. He couldn't move his muscles. He couldn't fight back. And he couldn't stop Booey from piling him into the car.
There was another scream. He was dropped onto the gravel driveway as Kimberly launched herself at Booey to try and stop him. Rick felt his body tingling as his nerve endings came back to life, and he rolled over to see her going after Booey, fighting the guy with her nails as Booey struggled to get her off of him.
Rick got to his feet and started to rejoin the battle when Booey grabbed a handful of her long hair and jerked her neck back hard. There was a popping sound, and terror froze his heart at the thought that the guy might have snapped her neck.
Yelling in rage, he started to lunge at the man, when the world exploded in crackling white light. The shock waves knocked Rick backwards. He barely missed hitting the car's fender, and landed beside the tire.
“Kim! Kim! ”
“Here!”
The light slowly dissipated, until he could see her lying a few feet away from him. He scrambled on hands and knees to reach her, pulling her into his arms for protection as he looked around to see where Booey could be. Standing behind the gate, Manderly Blakeney slowly lowered his hands as remnants of white light sparkled in his palms.
“Rick.” Kimberly tugged on his shirt and pointed at the body lying several feet away.
Rick stared in shock. “Is he still alive?”
“He's alive,” Blakeney replied.
“Wha... What did you do to him?” Rick whispered.
“What it took to protect my family,” the man said.
Kimberly snuggled against him. Rick glanced down to see his stunned expression reflected in her eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked him.
“Yeah. You?”
“I'm okay.”
He could sense her struggling with what she wanted to say next. “Rick...”
Laying a finger to her lips, he shook his head. “He wouldn't have stopped. You know that. Your father knew that. He would have kept on trying to get me to leave. Trying to convince me that being here, and being with you, was the worst decision of my life, next to moving to Toppers Cove.” He looked back at the still form of his ex-friend. “Booey deserved what he got. He brought this on himself. Besides, it's not as if he didn't have plenty of warning.”
“Except for one thing,” Kimberly added with a wistful sigh.
“What's that?”
“Somebody should have told him that nobody messes with Daddy.”
Chapter Ten
The Suburban pulled into the parking lot and managed to find a parking space at the end. The lot was full, but that was to be expected whenever the farmers market was open.
“Come on, Diana. It'll be warmer inside.”
The little girl crawled out of the back seat and followed her parents into the main building where the stalls were located. The place was noisy and crowded, but it wasn't as cold as it was outside because of all the people . To keep from getting separated, she kept a tight grasp on her father's hand.
The stalls were filled with all sorts of fruits and vegetables, many of which she didn't recognize. She'd never been here before, but her parents had been eager to drive the two hours it took to get here. Two hours to drive somewhere just so they could buy vegetables? Even at her age, she found it strange. Why couldn't Mommy buy her vegetables at the supermarket like everyone else did?
There was one stall in particular where they wanted to go. It was at the end of the building, and it took up the space of three sections. The little girl stared at the pile of pumpkins sitting on a tarp outside the stall. They were huge and golden orange. Mommy was especially excited about getting a few to make pumpkin pies with for the Thanksgiving holidays.
Letting go of her father, the child wandered further into the stall, staring at everything with wide-eyed amazement. She had never seen such an abundance of vegetables in one place. Even her parents exclaimed over the fact that some of the produce normally wasn't grown this time of year, and they were surprised to find it available. The pretty lady with long black hair who was working in the stall laughed and told them her father had an unusually green thumb, whatever that meant.
A sudden growl surprised her. She jumped back just before a tiny black and tan dog lunged for her. A short length of chain held the animal back, but it didn't stop him from yapping and growling at her. Its whole body trembled in fury, and it bared its teeth in warning.
“Hi! What's your name?” A young man came up behind her. He wore a long apron, which probably meant he worked in the market.
“Diana.”
“Hi, Diana. Are those your folks over there?”
She glanced over her shoulder to see the pretty lady bagging up some stuff for her mother. “Yeah. We drove two hours to get here. Isn't that dumb?”
The man laughed, which seemed to aggravate the little dog even further. It continued to lunge on its short chain, barking and growling with squinty-eyed anger.
“Why is it dumb?” the man asked.
“Because we can go to the supermarket and buy vegetables there. But Mommy said she wanted to come here to buy them. She said the best-tasting vegetables come from here.”
The little dog continued snapping and barking, until she wondered how long the animal could keep it up.
“Well, I'm glad you and your parents came today,” the young man said. “Just be careful and stay away from the dog,” he also advised, and went to join the pretty black-haired woman.
Diana remained staring at the furious animal. Not once did the dog wag its tail, or even seem curious about her. She was sure that, given the chance, the dog would definitely try to take a chunk out of her.
“What's its name?”
The pretty lady looked her way. “What?”
“What's the dog's name?”
“Booey,” the young man replied.
At the sound of its name, the dog grew even more upset, and tried repeatedly to lunge not toward the girl, but at the young man and woman.
“Would he bite me if I tried to pet him?”
“Probably,” the man answered. “He's not the friendly sort, I'm afraid.”
She stood there for few more moments, observing the animal's behavior and the amount of noise it was making. Especially the noise. All that barking was enough to make her want to turn and walk away. “He acts like he's angry at the whole world. Does he ever shut up?” Diana asked.
The young man and woman glanced back at her. Something about what she'd said must have been funny because they looked at each other, laughed, and loudly answered together.
“No.”
About the Author:
Carolyn Gregg,
aka Linda Mooney, writes best selling sweet, silly, sexy, sinful, sharp, sultry, smart, sassy, and seductive erotic romances. Stories that are sometimes a bit harder and edgier. Stories that sometimes push boundaries. Stories that contain language and circumstances not found in her alter ego's other books.
Linda Mooney, aka Carolyn Gregg, loves to write sensuously erotic romance with a fantasy, paranormal, or science fiction flair. Her technique is often described as being as visual as a motion picture or graphic novel. A wife, mother, and retired Kindergarten teacher, she lives in a small south Texas town near the Gulf coast where she delves into alternate worlds filled with daring exploits, adventure, and intense love.
She has numerous best sellers, including 10 consecutive certified #1s. In 2009, she was named Whiskey Creek Press Torrid's Author of the Year, and her book MY STRENGTH, MY POWER, MY LOVE was named the 2009 WCPT Book of the Year. In 2011, her book LORD OF THUNDER was named the Epic Ebook "Eppie" Award Winner for Best Erotic Sci-Fi Romance.
http://www.LindaMooney.com