Shelter for Koren

by Susan Stoker

  Nadine stood behind a tree nearby and watched as the small building quickly caught fire. She slunk from one tree to the next, loving the scent of smoke on the air. It reminded her of the night she’d lost everything—but it also signified that she’d finally get closure soon.

  She’d set herself on a path she wouldn’t deviate from. Couldn’t deviate from. Stevie was watching. Judging. She had to do this for him. She’d gathered as much information as possible about everyone Hudson Vines knew, and it was finally time.

  And she didn’t miss the way Hudson had gone straight to the woman he’d started seeing recently…Koren. Such a stupid name. It was like whore and corn at the same time.

  Nadine hated how happy Hudson looked. That was unacceptable. He would be as miserable as she was by the time she’d finished with him. That much was certain. If he thought he’d get to live happily ever after, he was wrong. Dead wrong.

  Feeling as if she was on top of the world, or at least at the peak of her high from the meth she’d scored and shot up earlier that night, Nadine rubbed her hands together.

  Soon. His time was coming soon…she was saving the best for last.

  Chapter Eight

  “Hi!” Taco said. “Come in.” He held the door open and couldn’t help but run his eyes up and down Koren’s body as she brushed past him and came into his house. She met him there so they could go car shopping. She’d finally gotten the check from her insurance company and was going to replace the rental she’d been driving around.

  “This could’ve waited until tomorrow,” Koren told him. “I mean, you just got off shift.”

  It had been a week since Chief’s shed had gone up in flames. The fire investigator had agreed that it had most likely started because of a short in the cord that led to the mini fridge, but he couldn’t say definitively. Sophie had sworn that she hadn’t seen any coyotes or other suspicious animals around, but the women had all been busy inside, so it’s possible they’d missed it.

  Chief had already made plans to go back to the reservation and have another cleansing ceremony. Taco knew he wasn’t put out by the idea—since he and Sophie were planning on getting married while they were there.

  He was thrilled for his friend. It seemed as if everyone was planning a wedding or, in Squirrel’s case, getting ready for a baby. Taco knew if he wasn’t dating Koren that he’d probably feel a lot more upset about literally everyone moving on with their lives, but he was content. Koren made him feel that way.

  “Taco?”

  “Sorry. It’s fine. You need a car. You can’t keep paying for that rental now that your insurance company has given you the check.”

  “You’re not too tired?” she asked, her brow furrowing.

  Taco reached out and grabbed her around the waist and hauled her close. She screeched, but laughed as she held on to him for balance.

  He waited for it…and smiled when he felt her fingers scrunch his T-shirt. He’d never take that for granted. Ever.

  “I’m not too tired. I don’t think I’ll ever be too tired to hang out with you. You need a car; I can help you negotiate. I can take a nap later while you’re working.”

  She looked at him and bit her lip. “If you wanted…you could nap at my place while I’m catching up.”

  “Absolutely.” He’d never pass up a chance to spend time with her. And while they’d fooled around plenty on her couch and at his place, he’d never been in her bed. The thought of sleeping where she did, of smelling her peach scent on her sheets, was appealing.

  “What’s that smile for?” she asked suspiciously.

  Taco leaned down and kissed her hard and fast. “Nothing.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you.”

  The smile fled from his face. “You can trust me.”

  She obviously realized he’d taken her words to heart. “I didn’t mean it that way. I was teasing.”

  “I know, but seriously, you can trust me.”

  She studied him for a moment, then nodded.

  “Good. How about we go and get this taken care of. The faster we get you a car, the faster I can be in your bed.”

  Koren chuckled and shook her head in exasperation. “I swear no matter how old boys get, they always have one thing on their minds.”

  “News flash, Kor. When I’m around you, that’s one of the only things I can think about.”

  Instead of laughing at him, her smile dimmed.

  “What?”

  “You probably shouldn’t have super-high expectations when it comes to that.”

  Taco felt her fingers tighten on the material of his shirt. She was nervous about having sex with him? Unacceptable.

  “With the way I get hard just looking at you, I don’t think we’re gonna have a problem.”

  She dropped her eyes, and Taco frowned. He put a finger under her chin and lifted her head. “Hey, what’s wrong, sweetheart?”

  “I just…I’m not anything to write home about, and I’m worried you’re going to be disappointed.”

  Knowing he was taking a gamble, Taco grabbed hold of one of her hands, disentangled it from his shirt, and slowly brought it down to the front of his jeans. “I don’t know where you got the idea that you aren’t pretty, because every time I see you, spend time with you, this is how I get. You don’t even have to do anything, Koren. You smile and I get hard. You laugh, I get hard. You get pissy with me, and yeah, I get hard. When we get to the point where it feels right for both of us to move our physical relationship to the next step, I have absolutely no doubt that you’re going to blow my mind.”

  “You can’t know that,” she protested, but she didn’t move her hand away.

  “Close your eyes,” he ordered.

  Her lids immediately dropped. And of course that turned him on even more. He felt his dick twitch. Koren’s lips opened and she panted slightly, but she didn’t open her eyes, and she still didn’t move her hand.

  “It’s a good thing I have my own room at the station because at night, after we talk on the phone, I can’t help but touch myself. Just the memory of your voice makes me hard. Do you ever touch yourself when you think about me? Do you get wet? For me, it doesn’t matter if we’re talking about something as harmless as car shopping or the trips you’ve organized, my body reacts to your voice; it recognizes you as its own. And my very favorite thing about you isn’t your voice, or your ass, or your tits—though they’re great. It’s the way you hold on to me as if you can’t bear not to. No one in my entire life has felt that way about me. Ever.”

  A small noise left the back of Koren’s throat, but she didn’t move.

  Taking an even bigger chance, Taco brushed the backs of his fingers against one of her tight nipples.

  She gasped, but didn’t shrink away. In fact, she arched her back and pressed herself harder against him.

  “When you get me in bed, sweetheart, I’m not going to be able to think of anything but how amazing you feel. You won’t have to do anything to have me wrapped around your little finger because I already am.”

  “Taco,” she whispered before her eyes opened. She moved the hand from between his legs and brought it up to cover his own, on her breast. “I’m not a virgin, of course. I’ve had sex. But I’ve never really enjoyed it much. Never really understood what all the fuss is about. But last night, after we talked, I did just what you said. I was so wet, and I started fantasizing about you, and before I knew it…I was coming.”

  Her cheeks were pink, and Taco wanted to drag her into his room and put them both out of their misery. But he was enjoying this too much. He loved dragging out the anticipation of making love with her. He’d never done this before. He’d been all about getting to the good stuff as fast as possible, except with Jen. But with Koren, the foreplay was the good stuff.

  Taco twisted his wrist and took her breast into his hand. Even through her bra, he could feel her nipple stabbing into his palm.

  “Will you help me make sure you’re
pleased?”

  It was a bit of an awkward statement, but he understood what she meant. “Kor, you aren’t going to have to do much of anything to please me.”

  “You know what I mean,” she said, biting her lip.

  “Only if you do the same.”

  She snorted and glanced down at his hand on her breast before saying, “I don’t think you’re going to need much direction.”

  “I’m not a virgin either, but none of the women I’ve been with have been you. None have meant as much to me as you do. I’m just as nervous as you are, Koren. The fact that you haven’t enjoyed sex is scary as hell. I want to be the man to show you what you’ve been missing, but that’s a lot of pressure. You’re going to have to talk to me, help me make sure you’re enjoying it.”

  “So we’re going to talk throughout?” she asked with a little scrunch of her nose.

  It was fucking adorable.

  He grinned. “Talking can be sexy.”

  She looked skeptical.

  “You’ll see.” Then with one last caress of her breast, he dropped his hand, loving the sigh of disappointment that left her lips. “Ready to go get you a new set of wheels?”

  She grimaced “No. I hate car shopping. Dad offered to go with me, but he has to talk about every single thing and haggle them to death. I just want a good price for a car so I can get on with my day.”

  “I’ve got your back, Koren.”

  “Thanks.”

  He reached down and grabbed hold of the hand that still had his T-shirt held fast. “Let’s go before all this talk of sex makes me forget about car shopping at all.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Hey, I am a guy, as you so eloquently pointed out.”

  “You’re not going to do something weird like sniff my sheets, are you?”

  Taco wasn’t sure what to say because he’d totally planned on smelling her sheets.

  “Fine, but I draw the line at masturbating while you’re in there.”

  He swallowed hard, and when her eyes flicked to the fly of his jeans, he knew she saw how much he liked the prospect of doing just that. “Today…I’ll promise. But after today, all bets are off.”

  He held on to her as he grabbed his keys and headed for the front door.

  Koren knew she’d blushed all the way to the Nissan dealership. She wasn’t used to talking about sex, especially not with a guy. Sure, she, Vicky, and Sue had talked about it plenty, but having Taco so nonchalantly discuss how he’d masturbated after talking with her on the phone, and not even get embarrassed by his hard-on, was…weird. And refreshing.

  But all thoughts of sex, what Taco was going to be doing in her bed later, and how good his hand had felt on her breast fled when they were greeted by a smarmy car salesman. She would’ve preferred to have gotten the one woman saleslady, but it appeared she was too busy flirting with one of the mechanics to greet them.

  They’d just spent half an hour listening to the salesman talk about how great the Altima was and about their financing. She knew how great the Altima was, it had literally saved her life, but the thing that really irritated Koren was how the salesman was talking to Taco…not her. At one point, Taco had even told the guy that he wasn’t the one buying the car, she was. But it didn’t seem to help at all.

  They’d gotten a tour of the latest model and were currently sitting at a desk while Melvin—yes, that was really his name—went over the function of every single knob and button.

  Koren hated confrontation. Loathed it. But at the moment, she hated Melvin more.

  Scooting her chair back, ignoring how it made a screeching noise as it scraped against the floor, she stood up and simply walked out of the cubicle without a word.

  “Guess she needs to use the restroom, huh?” Melvin said with a nervous chuckle.

  Koren heard Taco say, “If I had to guess, I’d say she’s had enough of your bullshit,” before she was out of earshot. She ignored the other salesmen and woman saying goodbye and pushed open the door of the showroom. She stomped to her rental and by the time she’d sat and closed the door behind her, Taco was climbing into the passenger side.

  Koren immediately started the car and pulled out of the parking spot. “Why can’t Amazon sell cars? Seriously. Guys like Melvin are why people don’t like car shopping. God! What a douche.”

  “I tried to tell him that I wasn’t the one buying the car,” Taco said.

  “I know. And I appreciate it. He wouldn’t even look at me. He just kept trying to sell you the car. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a lot about vehicles, but he didn’t even consider the fact that I’m the one paying, so maybe he should try to sell it to me.”

  “So what now?” Taco asked, putting his hand on her thigh.

  Just the weight of his hand calmed her somewhat. Sighing, Koren said, “There’s another Nissan dealership on the other side of San Antonio. I didn’t want to go all the way over there, but Melvin left me no choice. You don’t think he’ll call and warn them I’m on my way, do you?”

  Taco chuckled. “No. Are you sure you want another Altima? What about an Accord? Or a truck? Maybe a Humvee?”

  “I’m sure.” Koren glanced over at Taco before bringing her attention back to the road. “An Altima saved my life. Literally. There’s no way I want to push my luck and get something different.”

  He didn’t call her silly or try to talk her into something bigger again. “Do you want me to stay in the car this time? Maybe if you go in by yourself, you’ll have better luck.”

  Koren blew out a breath. “No. I don’t trust myself to buy a car on my own. And that sounds stupid. I mean, I’m thirty-three years old, but I just know they’ll somehow screw me if I don’t have a guy with me. I hate car shopping.”

  “You’re not giving yourself enough credit,” Taco said. “You’re smart. You saw through Melvin’s bullshit in two seconds. But I get what you’re saying. We’ll just see how things go, and if you want to leave, we’ll leave.”

  “I don’t like being rude,” Koren mumbled. “But I will when I have to.”

  “It was hot,” Taco said.

  “Oh, no,” Koren told him, holding up a hand. “Do not go there. I’m pissed off and need to hold on to this mood to deal with another car salesman. Don’t get me all hot and bothered, because then I might cave and put up with more antiquated, sexist bullshit.”

  Taco burst out laughing. “Right. Gotcha. But I’m reserving the right to bring up how much you’re turning me on right now at a later date.”

  Koren merely shook her head and concentrated on merging onto the interstate.

  Three hours later, Koren was beaming as she drove home in her brand-new dark purple Nissan Altima. The salesman helping them had been amazing. When Taco had said in no uncertain terms that he was only there to keep Koren company, the salesman focused all his attention to her. He’d patiently answered all her questions and hadn’t even blinked when she wanted to test drive three different cars to make sure they all drove the same and the Altima was really what she wanted.

  She was now the proud owner of a two-year-old Altima that she’d gotten for a steal. With the big down payment, thanks to the insurance check, her monthly payments were extremely manageable.

  “You look pleased,” Taco said after a while.

  “I am,” Koren said, smiling over at him. “Thank you for going with me.”

  “You’re more than welcome.”

  “I’m sure you had better things to do all morning than this.”

  “Nope,” Taco said. “Any time I get to spend with you is perfect. Doesn’t matter what we do.”

  She felt the same way about him, but hadn’t admitted it. “Ditto,” she said softly.

  “Want to stop for lunch?”

  Koren glanced at her watch and grimaced. “I really need to get home and get some work done. People are super impatient nowadays. If I don’t answer their inquiries within an hour, they’ll go to someone else.”

  “You don’t
have to explain, Koren. I understand. How about if we get you back to your place, then I’ll go out and grab us some takeout?”

  Her heart fluttered in her chest. She’d never dated someone as considerate as Taco. Generally, the men she’d dated hadn’t really understood how important her job was to her. How it wasn’t just something she was doing as a hobby from home. She earned a damn good commission because of how dedicated she was to her work.

  “That sounds great,” Koren told him.

  She carefully parked her new baby in her driveway and they went inside. She handed her keys to Taco and threw her purse on the counter. She headed for her laptop, which was currently on the dining room table, and was about to pull out a chair and sit when Taco took hold of her arm.

  “Koren,” he said hesitatingly.

  “Yeah?”

  “I didn’t think this through. My truck’s at my place.”

  “So?”

  “I don’t have a car to go get us something to eat. I’ll just make something here, if that’s okay.”

  Koren frowned at him. “You can use mine.”

  He stared at her without saying a word for a full thirty seconds.

  “Taco? What’s wrong?”

  “That’s your new car,” he finally said.

  “Yeah? And?”

  “You’d let me drive it?”

  Koren finally understood. “Taco, you drive those big ol’ fire trucks. I trust you. Of course you can drive it.”

  She watched as he swallowed hard. “You didn’t even hesitate though. You just handed over your keys.”

  Koren snuggled into him. She lay her head on his shoulder and her hands gripped his T-shirt at his back. “Yes, it’s my new car. And yes, it would suck if it got wrecked again. But the bottom line is that it’s just a hunk of metal. I trust you to not drive like a crazy man. And I’m hungry.”

  She felt him chuckle and looked up at him.