A Child of Her Own

by Beverly Barton

“Answer me, baby,” he demanded, his voice husky with sexual need. “Tell me you like my mouth on your breasts. Tell me you want me inside you, filling you completely.”

  “Rick. Oh, Rick, yes,” she whispered, her body trembling as painful need urged her to fight his hold on her wrists.

  When she struggled to free herself, wanting to grab him and hold him close, to run her hands over his chest and rip his clothes from his body, Rick tightened his grip, refusing to release her.

  “Do you want to touch me?” he asked her teasingly. “Tell me what I want to hear and I’ll let you touch me.”

  “I—I like your mouth...” Shuddering with aching pleasure, she cried out when he pinched her nipple. “I like your mouth on my breasts.” The words rushed out of her. “And I want you. Oh, Rick, I want you so.”

  He tugged her dress and lace half-slip down and over her hips. The soft crepe and slinky silk pooled around her ankles like obsidian clouds.

  He cupped her intimately, then slipped a couple of fingers inside her black lace bikini panties. She gasped the moment his fingers made contact with her throbbing little nub.

  “You’re right on the edge, aren’t you, baby? It wouldn’t take much to send you over.” He inserted his fingers into her damp, hot body. She squeezed her legs shut, trapping his hand between her thighs. “Tell me exactly what you want. Tell me what it’s going to take to put you out of your misery.”

  “Make love to me,” she pleaded. “I want you inside me. I ache for you.”

  The moment he released her wrists, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the truck. She kicked off her black leather heels, then grabbed his face, spearing her fingers into his hair, kissing him again and again. Rick unhitched the truck’s tailgate and lifted Lori Lee up on the edge. She shivered when her hips and legs made contact with the cold metal.

  Clenching fistfuls of his tailored blue shirt, she jerked him forward, then she popped several buttons off his shirt as she ripped it open. Spreading her hands over his chest, she sighed, loving the feel of his hair-covered muscles.

  “You want me bad, don’t you, baby?” Rick unbuckled his belt, unzipped his khaki slacks and hurriedly pulled them down his legs. When they caught on his shoes, he yanked his dress slippers and socks off along with his pants. “Don’t worry, I’m here. And I’m going to give you what you need. What we both need.”

  He tore her sheer panty hose in his haste to remove them and her lace panties. Her trembling hands yanked his briefs down over his hips. Hot, moist and naked, Lori Lee opened her legs in an invitation he could not refuse. He lifted her hips as he stepped between her legs and pulled her to the very edge of the truck’s unfolded tailgate.

  “You’re mine,” he said when he gripped her buttocks and thrust hard and heavy into her, burying himself deeply.

  “I’m yours...yours...yours...” She clung to him, accepting his wild lunges, loving the feel of Rick filling her completely.

  Their coupling was fast and furious. Rick’s big, hairy body dampened with sweat as he drove into her repeatedly, bumping her hips up and down and bouncing her breasts. Lori Lee sheathed him like a glove, clutching him with hot, wet fury.

  “Good. So good, baby,” he told her seconds before he felt her tighten around him. Her body shook as the power and pleasure of satisfaction burst inside her.

  Moaning with intense pleasure, Lori Lee dug her nails into his buttocks, then whispered passionate, earthy words of inducement. The feel of her quivering, encompassing heat and the insistence of her seductive, verbal demands hurled him into oblivion. His release hit him with violent force. Giving out a long, guttural cry of fulfillment, he buried his face between her breasts. She lifted his chin and looked at him adoringly.

  “I love you, Rick.”

  Groaning, he shut his eyes. “Oh, Lori Lee.”

  He had wanted her for as long as he could remember, had fantasized about making love to her, of claiming her as his own. But never in his wildest dreams had he ever thought she would love him.

  He took her mouth savagely, possessively, and felt himself growing hard once again. “I can’t get enough of you, baby.”

  Reluctantly pulling out of her body, Rick lifted her in his arms and carried her around the truck, then opened the driver’s door and set her on the seat. He climbed in beside her and pulled her into his arms. “No more celibacy,” he told her. “From now on, while we’re dating, we’re going to make love. Every day. Even if I have to come to you in the middle of the night.”

  “Every day,” she agreed, then wrapped her arms around his neck and dragged him down on top of her as she lay on the seat.

  He hadn’t told her that he loved her, too. She had so desperately wanted to hear him say the words. Perhaps he didn’t love her. Or maybe he just wasn’t ready to tell her. She could be patient. She could wait. She knew that he would never lie to her, never pretend, never profess to love her if he didn’t.

  “Lori Lee, honey, are you sure you really love me?” he asked, his sex pulsating against her belly. “Sometimes people confuse good sex with love.”

  “I love you,” she said. “I love the sex, too, of course.” She eased her thighs apart slowly and lifted her hips.

  “Dammit, woman, you’re driving me crazy.” He plunged into her, gasping with pleasure as her body welcomed him.

  “It’s all right if you can’t tell me that you love me,” she whispered in his ear as he once again claimed her with pure, raw passion. “This is enough. For now.”

  Clutching the telephone in his hand, Rick stared at it as if it were an alien being. Then, when his mind absorbed the reality of his recently completed conversation, he slammed the receiver onto the wall base.

  “Dammit! Dammit!” He kicked his booted toe against the doorpost and beat his fist against the closed kitchen door.

  “You didn’t get the loan.” Eve dropped the knife she was using to spread mayonnaise on their sandwiches, wiped her hands on the towel draped across her shoulder and rushed over to her brother.

  When she tried to put her hand on his shoulder, he jerked away, turning his back to her. He didn’t want Eve to see him on the verge of crying. Before he faced her, he had to get his emotions under control. He was so angry that it wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge. If he could get his hands around Mara Royce’s short, plump neck right now, he’d strangle the life out of her.

  “I’m sorry, Eve. Just give me a minute. Okay?”

  Taking several steps away from Rick, she stood in the middle of her immaculately clean white-and-hunter-green kitchen. “What did Mr. Percy say? Did he give you a reason for turning down your loan application?”

  Taking a deep, semicalming breath, Rick grunted. “Oh, yeah, he gave me a reason all right. It seems my application was given special consideration. Colbert Federal’s president reviewed it, and Mr. John Hobart himself decided I wasn’t a good risk.”

  “John Hobart,” Eve repeated the name. “But that’s—”

  “Mara Royce’s father.” Rick turned to face his sister.

  “Oh, that horrible woman. She actually involved her father in her petty little scheme for revenge.” Eve threw up her hands in a sign of disgust. “There has to be something we can do. We’ll hire a lawyer. We’ll sue Colbert Federal. We’ll sue Mara Royce!”

  “If I thought it would do any good, I’d go to Birmingham and hire the best attorney I could afford,” Rick said. “But there would be no way to prove a thing, little sister. It’s Hobart’s bank, and if he says I’m a poor loan risk, then my bet is he can find a way to back up his claim.”

  “Colbert Federal isn’t the only bank around here,” Eve reminded him. “You can apply for a loan at another bank.”

  “Yeah, well, Mr. Percy advised me against doing that.”

  “What do you mean? Did he threaten you?”

  “Not exactly.” Rick walked over and put his arm around Eve’s shoulder. “He simply commented that he was sure I’d find similar problems with other loc
al banks, and that Mr. Hobart suggested that before I tried reapplying anywhere else I might want to get advice from a lawyer. He recommended Powell Goodman.”

  “It’s a conspiracy. That’s what it is. Mara Royce and Powell Goodman are out to get you.” Eve hugged Rick, then pulled away from him. “Well, they’re not going to get away with it.”

  “Look, sis, I’ve known all along that it wasn’t going to be easy to make a place for me and Darcie in Tuscumbia. I was aware of the risk I was taking, counting on the people around here to give me a chance.”

  “Most people have given you a chance,” Eve told him. “Powell Goodman and Mara Royce are a small minority.”

  “Yeah, but they’re a powerful, dangerous minority.”

  His gut instincts had told him that something would mess up his dreams, now that they were within his reach. He’d been too damn lucky. His sister and brother-in-law had bent over backward to help him, even giving him and Darcie a place to live. And by some miracle, Lori Lee Guy had fallen in love with him—something he’d never dreamed possible. To make things perfect, Darcie and Lori Lee adored each other. He had figured that, once this loan went through and he’d bought Bobo’s business, he just might propose to Lori Lee.

  Now what the hell was he going to do? Even at best, he had little to offer her. Just himself and Darcie. And his solemn vow to be a good, faithful husband until the day he died. But now, he couldn’t go to her, a complete failure, and ask her to endure the town’s ridicule.

  “Rick, don’t give up. There’s a solution to this problem, if we can just find it.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Rick said. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell Lori Lee. She’s suffered enough in the past few days because of me. After that stunt Mara Royce pulled at the recital Saturday night, I wouldn’t have blamed Lori Lee if she’d never wanted to see me again.”

  “When are you going to get it through that thick head of yours that Lori Lee Guy loves you?”

  “I can’t figure out why. What the hell does a woman like that see in a guy like me?”

  “I’ve asked myself that same question,” Eve said jokingly. “Why don’t you ask Lori Lee?”

  “What I should do, for her sake, is break off things right now.” Rick couldn’t bear the thought of losing Lori Lee, but he didn’t have the right to drag her down with him, to ask her to share her life with a guy who didn’t have a prayer of making it in this town.

  “You’re talking as if everything is hopeless when it’s not.” Eve returned to the task of preparing sandwiches, quickly putting together two ham-and-cheese combinations. “Sit down and eat and we’ll discuss the possibilities.”

  “Just put mine on a paper towel and I’ll eat it on the way back to work. My lunch hour is nearly over.”

  Eve tore off a paper towel, wrapped it around one of the sandwiches and handed it to Rick. “Here. And don’t do anything stupid, like breaking up with Lori Lee out of some misplaced sense of chivalry. I promise you that I’ll find a way for you to get a loan.”

  Rick grabbed the sandwich in one hand, then cupped his sister’s chin, lifting her face for a quick kiss. “My little miracle worker.”

  “It won’t take a miracle.”

  “Yes, it will, sis. Happiness just isn’t in the cards for a guy like me. I wasn’t meant to be one of the lucky ones. The first time life kicked me on my rear, I should have stayed down instead of clawing my way back up time and time again.”

  “Oh, Rick,” Eve said as Rick closed the door behind him. “It breaks my heart to hear you talk like that....”

  Lori Lee answered the Sparkle and Shine shop’s telephone on the second ring, identifying both herself and her business.

  “Lori Lee, this is Eve Nelson.”

  “Hello, Eve. How are you?”

  “I’ve been better.”

  Lori Lee’s stomach tightened into knots. Something was wrong with Rick. Why else would Eve be calling her?

  “What’s the matter?” Lori Lee asked.

  “Colbert Federal turned down Rick’s loan,” Eve said.

  “Oh, no. I suppose he’s angry and hurt and roaring like a wounded lion.”

  “You know our Rick.”

  Aunt Birdie, who was removing the Easter display from the show window, backed her ample behind out of the window and set her wide feet on the floor. “What happened to Rick?”

  Lori Lee covered the phone’s mouthpiece with her hand. “Rick didn’t get his loan from Colbert Federal,” she told her aunt.

  “Look, Lori Lee,” Eve said. “Rick’s ready to give up, to call it quits with you and forget all of his dreams.”

  “There’s more to this than you’ve told me, isn’t there?” Lori Lee asked.

  “Mr. Percy at Colbert Federal advised Rick not to seek a loan locally. It seems Mara Royce persuaded her father to reject Rick’s loan application and Mr. Hobart and Powell Goodman have put the word out that Rick’s a poor risk.”

  Lori Lee saw red. Literally. She shut her eyes tightly, allowing the anger inside her to build until she was on the verge of exploding. The sheer force of her rage rendered her momentarily speechless. Tears gathered in her eyes as pain consumed her.

  “What on earth’s wrong?” Birdie grabbed the phone away from Lori Lee, then clasped her niece’s shoulder and gave her a sound shake. She placed the receiver to her ear. “Eve, Birdie Pierpont here. Lori Lee’s so upset she’s crying. Tell me what happened, and don’t leave out a thing.” Birdie listened while Eve explained the entire situation.

  Lori Lee rubbed her throbbing temples as she tried to calm herself. She was not going to allow Mara Royce or Powell Goodman to hurt Rick. They had no right to take their jealous fury out on him, when she was the object of their irrational feelings. If it hadn’t been for her, this wouldn’t have happened. If Rick lost his dream, it would be her fault.

  “Well, don’t you worry, Eve,” Birdie said. “I can take care of this problem with one phone call. A great deal of my money is scattered around several local banks, most of it in Tuscumbia Savings and Loan where my nephew, Guy Stephenson, works. You leave everything to me. I’ll see to it that Rick gets his loan.”

  While Aunt Birdie continued chatting with Eve, Lori Lee saw Rick’s old truck pull up in front of the shop. “Get off the phone, Aunt Birdie. Rick’s here. He just parked. Now he’s getting out.”

  “Calm down, sugar,” Birdie told her niece as she held her hand over the phone’s mouthpiece. “I’ve got things under control. You take Rick on back to the storeroom and convince him that Powell Goodman and John Hobart have no influence whatsoever over at Tuscumbia Savings and Loan. Talk him into applying for a loan there today.”

  “Today?”

  “If he applies today, he’ll get his loan tomorrow.” Birdie uncovered the telephone mouthpiece and told Eve that she’d keep her posted, said goodbye and hung up the receiver.

  “Oh, Aunt Birdie, you’re wonderful!” Lori Lee wiped the tears from her eyes.

  Rick opened the front door and walked in, a scowling look on his face that proclaimed to one and all that his life wasn’t worth living.

  “We’ve got to talk, honey.” He grabbed Lori Lee’s arm. “Somewhere private.”

  “Come on back to the storage room.” Lori Lee glanced at her aunt. “Take care of things out here for me, please.”

  “I’ll be glad to take care of everything,” Birdie assured her.

  Lori Lee led Rick into the storage room, closed the door and wrapped her arms around him. Immediately, he prized her arms off him and held her shoulders, keeping their bodies from touching.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Things aren’t going to work out,” he said. “I was a fool to think you and I had a prayer of making things work. I’m a born loser. You’re a golden princess. If I don’t let you go now, I’m going to drag you down into the mire with me.”

  “You heard from Colbert Federal about your loan, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, honey, it isn’t goo
d news.”

  “Colbert Federal isn’t the only local bank.”

  “I’ve already had this conversation. with my sister.”

  “Come over here and sit down, and tell me everything.” She clasped his hand in hers and coaxed him over to the small table and chairs in the corner of the storage room.

  He told her every detail of his conversation with Mr. Percy from Colbert Federal, leaving out nothing; She damned Mara Royce and Powell Goodman for the hateful, jealous-hearted creatures they were, then she told him that she wasn’t going to allow anyone to ruin his dreams and destroy his and Darcie’s future.

  “There’s one bank in town where neither Mara’s daddy nor Powell have any influence,” she told him. “Tuscumbia Savings and Loan. I think you should go over there right now and put in a loan application.”

  “Didn’t you listen to a thing I said? Nobody in this town is going to loan me a dime.”

  “I’m sure Tuscumbia Savings and Loan will consider your application.” When he shook his head and frowned, she reached out and laid her hand over his where it rested atop the table. “What have you got to lose? Give it a try. Do it for me. After all, I have a big stake in your success. If you can’t buy Bobo’s business, you’re going to walk out of my life, and I can’t let that happen.”

  Turning her hand over, he traced the faint lines in her palm. “You’re a hopeless optimist, honey.”

  “And you’re a cynic and a pessimist, and I love you.”

  “Did I happen to mention that you’re also crazy?” A hint of a smile twitched his lips.

  “Rick, we can’t let this one setback destroy what we’re trying to build together. A good life for you and Darcie, and maybe even a future for you and me.”

  “I’m never going to be good enough for you, honey. No matter what.” Tugging on her hand, he urged her up and onto her feet, then drew her slowly into his arms. “You’re perfect. Absolutely perfect. You can give a man everything, make all his dreams come true. You should love a man who can give you everything in return.”

  “Rick, I’m not perfect. There are things about me that you don’t know, things I should have told you.”