The Flavor Of Love

by Shiree McCarver

  “Keigo,” she whispered his name. A lone tear glided down her cheek and he caught it with his lips pressed to her face.

  “Don’t cry,” Keigo crooned. “I will be here for you. I promise.”

  Etta released a choked sob. She hadn’t realized how much she needed this, until now. How could she think she’d be happy never knowing this feeling again for the rest of her life? Damn Keigo and bless him for reminding her how wonderful it felt to feel so alive.

  She sat there in his arms as he kissed the tip of her nose, then her eyes, and finally, he adoringly seized her mouth once more. It was a kiss for her hardened soul to melt into. Gently she felt herself being eased down onto the couch. His hand found its way under her front knotted t-shirt and fondled one braless small globe. Its ruddy nipple blossomed hard beneath his hot palm. Etta gasped into his mouth. The gentle massage sent currents of desire through her. Her legs spread apart to accommodate his lean hips.

  Etta helped his trembling hand as he removed it to unknot her t-shirt. Once they released the knot, he swept up her t-shirt. The cool air to her naked heated flesh was exactly what she needed to keep her from going up in flames. Her reward for allowing him to have his way was the feel of his tongue tantalizing her nipples that had swollen to the fullest point. She could feel the tugging sensation from his mouth all the way down to her sensitive clitoris.

  Etta arched into him. Her fingers buried deeply into the thick silken strands of his hair. She bit her bottom lip to minimize the whimpering that wrenched from her dry throat as his tongue made a path down her ribs to her stomach and stopped.

  Stop? No! Don’t stop now. Not now! She screamed in her mind. Etta panted, coming up on her elbows. Her face rested against the bunched up t-shirt nestled beneath her chin. She heard a gentle snoring emanating from her Asian Casanova. He’d passed out before reaching glory land. With a frustrated growl, Etta dropped back to the sofa with his heavy dead weight between her spread thighs.

  “Etta? You in here? The young man’s driver and I are on the front porch! Hello?”

  Auntie Loo! Etta mind raced and she tugged her t-shirt back over her breasts the best she could.

  Etta struggled to push Keigo off of her, but he was too heavy for her petite frame. “Come on, Keigo!” She whispered. “Wake up! Please,” she ended on a whine.

  “Etta? Oh my!”

  Etta turned to see Auntie Loo and a tall gorgeous swarthy skinned man with a big white grin on his face. “I see Keg has settled in nicely.”

  “I don’t know who you are, but could you shut up and get him off of me. He has a fever and I was trying to help him.”

  The tall man came around with a beaming snickering Auntie Loo. “I’m Keigo’s driver and bodyguard, Enriquez Valdez, but everyone calls me Reko.” His grin widened more, if it were possible. “If I get a fever will you help me too?” He teasingly asked.

  “After I kick your cute ass!” Etta growled. “Don’t just stand there. Can’t you see he’s being attacked, guard him?”

  “I like you already,” Reko commented, lifting an unconscious Keigo from Etta’s rumpled body as if he was a child.

  Etta rolled out from under Keigo and landed on the ground in a huff.

  A laughing Reko allowed Keigo to drop back down on the couch and he reached out a hand to Etta. “Hello, beautiful. You want to run to Vegas and get married?”

  CHAPTER 6

  “So you really believe in this tea stuff? It really will help my stomach?”

  “Are you telling me you trust me enough to know what’s best for your wayward kids, but not enough to know what will help you? I’ve gotten you over your fever haven’t I? Aren’t you already feeling better?”

  He sheepishly grinned and murmured, “Maybe after another day I will be able to leave your place. I really appreciate you putting me up like this and taking care of me.” Keigo leaned back on the bed pillows and opened his mouth.

  Etta gave him a hard narrowed stare before spearing another chunk of watermelon with the fork and held it to his mouth. He locked his hand around hers and accepted the fruit into his mouth.

  She couldn’t believe she was taking care of a grown man that was worse than any six-year-old when he was sick. Also, why was he here in her guest room? She couldn’t believe it when Auntie Loo suggested Keigo stay here until he was better. What did she look like, a hospital?

  Etta stabbed another piece of watermelon, picturing Keigo’s head.

  “Keigo?”

  “Hmm?” He opened his mouth and took another bite.

  She looked at him with fluttering lashes and a sugary sweet smile that didn’t match the agitation she was feeling inside. “Why am I still feeding you when you have two perfectly good hands?”

  “Because I’m still feeling too weak,” he said in a low mewling voice.

  “It’s funny how you’re too weak to feed yourself but you no longer need my help to use the bathroom.” She saw his face turn beet red all the way to his scalp and ears and laughed.

  “Okay!” He pouted at her. “I will start feeding myself. If I get it all over my pajamas from my shaking hand, then you’ll have to wash me again.”

  “Yeah, about that,” Etta handed him the bowl of leftover watermelon before giving him the fork. “Did you know that you have the cutest little heart shaped mole just below--”

  “Hey! Why were you doing all that searching while I was unconscious?” Keigo interrupted. “You are a healer aren’t you? Isn’t that like a nurse? Aren’t you supposed to be all nurse-like and not notice such things and if you did, not mention them?”

  “Well, someone is feeling better,” he heard a familiar cackle from the bedroom door and groaned.

  “I believe he is too Auntie Loo, even though he won’t admit it.” Etta shook her head.

  “Why should he? He’s getting waited on hand and foot by two gorgeous women and I think he loves my wash downs the best,” Auntie Loo revealed.

  Keigo started coughing. Etta took his bowl and fork, setting it aside on the black lacquered Asian styled low table by the matching platform bed. She giggled, patting his back until the coughing subsided.

  “I thought.” He coughed pushing his disheveled hair back off his brow. “You were the one bathing me, Auntie Loo?”

  “You think Etta would have done it?” She winked at him. “I didn’t think it was appropriate for Etta to be touching you in all your private places, knowing you were going to be her boss for the next month.”

  “I see she finally told you everything,” he mumbled. “And for both of your information, I’m not going to be her boss. At Bent Arrow, it’s a group effort. We are co-workers.”

  “Mmm, are you saying, handsome, you wanted Etta to see and touch all your private parts?”

  Keigo went red, making Etta wonder if he was getting feverish again. She intervened on his behalf knowing Auntie Loo could be exhausting once she got on a role.

  “Auntie Loo, didn’t you say you and Bertha were going to take care of my morning runs to the market? You know all the good stuff is gone within an hour after the doors are open.”

  “What’s with all that talking you doing?” Auntie Loo grumbled. “If you want to be alone with him, just say so. I will be back in two hours. Two hours exact. That should give you plenty of time to do the things that I wouldn’t do.” She cackled and added before rambling out the door, “And I have done the entire book of Karma Sutra. Want to borrow it?”

  “Oh my God,” Etta laughed. “She is so embarrassing.”

  Keigo looked at her with raised eyebrows, “Do you think she really has a book on the Karma Sutra?”

  “Without a doubt,” Etta shook her head. “I’m going to go clean up the kitchen and do my workout.”

  “Wait, you’re going to leave me alone?” Keigo called out to her and she turned to look at him in question. “I thought you would stay with me and finish reading that book to me.”

  “I was reading the book aloud, thinking you were asleep,” Etta correct
ed. “Don’t tell me you have become a fan of the Interracial Romances that I read.”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t go that far, but after hearing that much of the story, I figured they were bound to get to the sex part sooner than later.”

  “Oh God, save me from men!” Etta cried out. “I will be back in fifteen minutes to continue the story. If I see any part of your body hardening besides your ears, then I’m out of here.”

  Etta grinned, walking down the hall with the deep and wonderful sound of Keigo’s laughter in her ears. She hated to admit it but it felt good to have a man in the house with her.

  ***

  Keigo’s head dropped back on the pillow with a chuckle. He bent his arms beneath his head and looked up at the dove gray painted ceiling. He knew he’d held out as long as he could and it would be time for him to return to his own home. It had been two days and there was so much left for him to do. Nan had called him seven times and been by three times with paperwork and such.

  Etta had been right. His life was too hectic and it was slowly killing him. He never really cared enough to think about living a long life, knowing his wife and daughter had already left this world without him. He didn’t look forward to growing old alone with just his bitter memories to haunt him, but Etta gave him hope. She made him think about the future and the advantages he was missing out on that life had to offer that.

  As far as he was concerned, these past few days couldn’t have worked out better if he had planned it himself. Fate had intervened and given him this opportunity to get to know Etta better. Admittedly, being as ill as he felt at the time with the deep pain in his gut, he could have done without. But if it hadn’t happened, he would not have the sweet memories that he played over and over again in his mind.

  The pill he took to ease the pain on an empty stomach combined with exhaustion had knocked him on his ass, but what lousy timing! Etta had been surrendering to his kisses before he passed out. Was that a good thing or a bad thing is what he wasn't sure of. It had been awhile since a woman had buried herself this deep in his thoughts.

  Keigo had come to realize one thing while spending the past few days in Etta's care. He was falling for her and he was falling for her hard and fast. The question that nagged him was if he had the right to bring another woman into his life? What if what happened to Claire and Miko happened again? No, why should it? He thought. He was no longer in the same position he was in nearly four years ago. He had given up his and his father’s dream of being on the Supreme Court someday to assure that his mother and the rest of his family would be safe.

  “Judge Gorgeous, what’s on your mind?

  Keigo looked up to find Etta leaning against the guest bedroom door. Today she wore a creamy silky t-shirt with a pair of wide leg blue jeans; her wonderful thick hair was pushed back from her brow with a cream and blue tie-dyed scarf with two of the three thin braids resting over her right shoulder. Keigo’s eyes drifted down to her lovely feet he was coming to adore and instead of her usual jewelry, they were completely naked.

  “Hey, can I ask you something?” He asked with a welcoming smile, pushing himself up in the bed and pulling the extra pillows from the untouched side of the bed behind his back for extra support.

  Etta pushed herself away from the door and walked over to sit at his feet on the bed. She crossed her legs Indian style.

  “I asked you what’s on your mind,” she reminded. “Is everything okay?” Her eyes grew wide with concern. It warmed him to see her place her delicate hand on his leg naturally as if he was hers to touch. At that moment, he wished there were no bed covers or clothing between them and he could take up where he left off on the sofa.

  “Why do you call me Judge Gorgeous, Handsome and all those complimentary things instead of Judge Kyou? Or Keigo, even.”

  “I do call you Keigo, sometimes.” She raised her eyebrows at him.

  “Sure you weren't,” Keigo looked at her doubtfully.

  Again she laughed and the dimples flashed at him. He was smitten.

  “The truth is…until I get to know a person I'm really bad with remembering names. Faces I remember, your favorite foods and any food allergies I never forget, but I truly suck at names, to the point of embarrassment. Therefore, until I get to know you, I have this little name association game I like to play to remind me. Now when I look at you, I think ‘Judge Handsome…Judge Sexy…Judge Keigo Kyou…Keigo’.”

  Keigo laughed, nodding his head. “That has to be the craziest thing I have ever heard and all this time getting an ego boost because I thought you were telling me I was handsome, gorgeous and sexy.”

  “Hey, don’t knock it. It works,” she chastised. “Also, for your information, I can’t associate those words with you if I didn’t think they were true.”

  Keigo’s eyes showed his pleasure at her confession. That was until she took him down a notch with her usual saucy tongue.

  “If I remember correctly, I also called you Judge Bully, but it’s funny how you didn’t remember that one.”

  “I didn’t forget,” he grinned. “I just found that one inappropriate.”

  “Oh, you!” She tried to pinch him through the covers but lucky for him she couldn’t get a good hold.

  Keigo lifted a pillow and landed it against her face. She fell back on the bed from the impact and became still with her eyes closed. He felt as if a fist had gripped his heart and squeezed. His stomach lurched.

  Throwing off the covers, Keigo leaned over her and grasped her shoulders. Lightly shaking her, he frantically cried out, “Etta! Sweetheart, wake up. I'm so sorry. I didn't realize I hit you that ha--ouch!” Keigo clinched his buttocks from the pinch he felt on his bottom.

  Etta’s shoulders shook with laughter. Her soothing brown eyes twinkled with merriment. “Gotcha! You really sounded worried.”

  “Oh you think that was funny, huh?” Keigo laughed aloud and tickled her. “You are a little sneaky sneak,” he accused with an amused growl. Grasping her slender wrists in his hand, he held them flat upon the mattress while straddling her hips to hold her still.

  “You’re heavy,” she whined.

  “Liar. I barely have all my weight on you,” he countered.

  “How come you never got married again, Keigo?” Etta surprised him by asking.

  His eyes bore into hers, the smile faded from his face. “Why?” Keigo snapped before regaining his composure and releasing her wrists. He rolled off of her onto his back and crooked his arms beneath his head. Keigo stared up at the ceiling. “I suppose I haven’t met the right person.”

  Etta rose onto one elbow, lying on her side next to him. “Is that the real reason?”

  He looked over at her and asked, “What other reason could there be?”

  She shrugged one shoulder and plucked at the bedding. “I thought maybe it was for the same reason I haven’t been with anyone else since Neil died.”

  “What reason is that?” He reached up and tucked a shell tipped braid behind one of her ears.

  She blinked at him, the sadness he saw on her face he could understand better than anyone. He waited for her to answer and if she chose not to, he wasn’t going to push.

  Keigo didn’t have to wait too long before she quietly spoke.

  “I’m scared to love like that again,” Etta said. “I think if I take that chance once more and something were to happen to him, I wouldn’t be able to survive it a second time around.”

  Keigo released a long sigh and rolled over onto his side. He propped his elbow on the mattress and braced his cheek on his knuckles. They were practically nose-to-nose now, staring at each other. He could tell she was waiting for something. Probably, for him to be as honest about why he was alone as she had been.

  “Etta, the car accident that killed my family and nearly killed me wasn’t an accident. Someone had severed my break lines. It had been raining for days and that day wasn’t an exception. The next thing I knew, cars seemed to have just stopped in the middle of t
he causeway. I hit the brakes and nothing happened. As I slammed into a dirt embankment, my seat belt broke and I was thrown from the car. I don’t remember anything else until I woke up twenty days later in the hospital.”

  “Your wife and daughter?”

  “They told me they died on impact and I could only hope that was true because when the automobile slammed into the embankment, it caused a mud slide. They told me they had been buried beneath the mud. I still have nightmares at the thought that there could have been a chance they were buried alive,” he shuddered inwardly at the thought.

  “I know that must have been horrific for you.” Etta reached out and touched his face before dropping her hand back to the mattress.

  “I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye.” A glazed look of despair spread over his face. Keigo swallowed hard and bit back his tears. “They didn’t know when or if I would ever wake up and for the sake of Claire’s family, had to release the bodies into their care. There was nothing left for me. I was so damn angry, Etta. I’m still angry and don’t speak to Claire’s family any longer.”

  “I can understand the anger, but you must understand why they had to go ahead with the funeral,” she spoke softly.

  The muscle in Keigo's jaw worked profusely as he bit on his back teeth. “That isn't why I'm angry at them. I'm angry because when I could finally leave the hospital and return home, they had already cleared out all of Claire’s and Miko's things. They had no fucking right! I was her husband and Miko's father. I should have been allowed to keep everything the way it was, for as long as I needed it to be.”

  “Oh my God,” Etta breathed. “How could they be so callous? It took me nearly a year before I could get rid of Neil’s things and I still have a few keepsakes I can’t bear to part with; such as a pillow that still had his smell.”

  Keigo saw that her expressive eyes were bordered with tears before they slowly found their way down her cheeks. He didn’t know if she was crying for him or herself, but either way, it touched him like no one else has been able to for a long time. His feelings for her were intensifying. Gathering her into his arms, he held her snugly and settled back, enjoying the feel of her against him.