by Sandra Kitt
Would it be okay to leave Billie alone?
She looked at the time. Almost one. It would take her at least twenty minutes to a half hour to get to Kevin’s house. If she stayed an hour or two she could be back by four. Five, at the latest.
But what would Billie think or do if she got up and didn’t find her?
But Chloe knew it wasn’t as if Billie sought her out or expected Chloe to keep her company. She seemed only to want to eat, watch TV and sleep. The day before, Saturday, there had been almost no contact between them at all. No conversation. Like strangers simply occupying the same space.
We are strangers, Chloe considered bluntly.
Although she continued to consider the realm of possibilities, Chloe already knew she was leaving. She had to go to Kevin.
She wore a pair of olive drab capri pants and a pale yellow button-down fitted linen blouse. Her hair was loose and down, and she didn’t even take the time to comb or style it. She roughly tousled the locks with her hands, slipped on a pair of ballet flats, grabbed her purse and keys and left.
She couldn’t wait to see Kevin again. They’d only been apart four days, but the time and distance had added perspective and insight about their relationship. There had been a loss during that time, and it changed some of the emotions they might be feeling. For her part, Chloe realized that she was concerned and anxious but happy they would see each other again. It wasn’t until he’d been forced away that she fully realized how much a part of her existence Kevin had become. And when privately confronted with what her feelings meant, love was the word she had in her head.
After her futile attempts to communicate with Billie over the past few days Chloe had wished desperately that he had been available to talk to. Not about Billie but about anything else. He would have made her laugh. And, like now, she might have figured out how they could be together for a little while, without blowing her cover about her houseguest.
Chloe parked her car in the garage space next to Kevin’s car. With easy familiarity she entered the little side gate and entered the house.
“Kevin? It’s Chloe,” she shouted out, always careful not to take liberties by just walking about unannounced.
There was no answer, and the house was very quiet. But she found a lightweight jacket and an overnight leather tote bag inside the door, where he’d apparently left them.
Chloe quietly climbed the stairs to Kevin’s room and saw his clothing discarded on a chair, his shoes on the bathroom floor.
He’d gone running.
Chloe opened the French doors to the balcony off Kevin’s master bedroom. Below was a deck off the living room that was twice as large. Both overlooked a man-made lake bordered on the far bank by an even row of trees. It was a beautiful setting early in the morning and late at night.
She positioned the two lounge chairs and the table on the balcony, got fresh towels and set them aside. Made other preparations in the room that would make him comfortable, and then went downstairs to wait. She was just turning from the refrigerator when the door opened and Kevin appeared. Sweaty, a little short-winded, and with a strong scent of masculine energy and body heat.
He saw her right away, and she was already smiling and walking to meet him. He seemed taller to her, if that was possible. The shadow of hair on his face seemed stark against his skin, and he seemed almost dangerous. She held out the bottled water, and Kevin accepted it. But he was staring at her hard with hunger, relief and something else in his eyes. It held her mesmerized.
Kevin put the bottle down on the counter and reached for her. Chloe willingly went into his arms, and he crushed her to him. His running clothes were soaked through. And everywhere else she touched the skin was warm and damp. When he kissed her it wasn’t desperate or hard but a kind of careful tenderness in which he relayed his feelings.
I’m so glad you’re here.
Not a word was spoken, but their embrace and kiss pretty much said everything. For a long moment all Kevin did was hold her, his hands holding and working and kneading her body. She could feel the emotions of the last twenty-four hours in the heat of his breath on her neck and cheek.
“I’m glad you’re back,” she whispered, breaking the silence.
In response, Kevin grabbed his water in one hand, took hers in the other and led the way up to his room. She’d left the balcony doors open, and there was a gentle breeze rolling in that was cooling. Kevin headed out and stood drinking the water. He inhaled a deep breath, let his head fall back and closed his eyes, as if clearing his senses.
“Will you mind if I just get in the bed for a little bit?”
Chloe stroked his back. “Whatever you want, Kevin. Come on. Back inside.”
As he returned to the room he was already peeling off the wet shirt and pushing off his running shorts. His thighs and butt and the muscles bordering his spine were taut and toned and defined, flexing with his every move. He grabbed one of the towels she’d left out and quickly rubbed himself dry. Dropping it on the floor he collapsed in the bed, sprawling on his back. She watched as he lay there and he released his tension. He looked at her through the narrow slits of his eyes. Under his gaze Chloe silently undressed and joined him naked in the bed. Kevin held up an arm to welcome her, and she positioned herself with her body along the length of his side, her hand on his chest.
He kissed her forehead, covered her hand with his own and, with a final exhale, was instantly asleep.
Chloe lay still and awake. She, too, felt herself relaxing, only then realizing how much tension she was holding in from the last few days. She quickly put Billie out of her mind. She was here with Kevin, where she really wanted to be. She closed her eyes but didn’t sleep. She just enjoyed lying like this with him.
In twenty minutes Kevin moved, coming awake. What started as a stretch of his long limbs turned into something else as he carefully rolled his body toward her, his penis stretching and stiffening. He pulled her properly into his arms. Chloe tilted her head back and let him find her mouth. She was almost on her back, and his knee settled between her legs, pushing them apart.
“Kevin,” she whispered in understanding, in solidarity. Her nipples were stiff little peaks.
But he didn’t forget, and she waited patiently while he readied himself. She boldly stroked his length and momentarily distracted him but got the desired effect. He was stiff and hard when he turned back to her.
The minute Chloe felt the tip of him searching to enter her she became limp with desire, panting in anticipation of him being completely inside her. Their lovemaking was sweet and slow, the pleasure drawn out and their release held back for as long as either could bear. She loved it when she came first, because she stayed sensitive long enough to ride out Kevin’s climax with equal pleasure. Then they cuddled for a little while longer.
Chloe showered and dressed first and went back to the kitchen while Kevin did the same. When she returned he was back on the balcony sitting in a chair, resting with his hands locked behind his head, staring out over the grounds.
“Here,” she said, handing him a dish of ice cream.
Kevin looked stunned and then chuckled at the surprise, taking the dish filled with rum raisin.
“Nice idea. Thanks.”
Chloe sat in the other chair with another dish. They began eating and enjoying the cool treat.
“Would you believe I can’t remember ever having ice cream when I was little. Not until I went to live with the Fields.”
Kevin glanced at her with an odd expression, but she didn’t mind sharing this one memory with him. It was a good one.
“If I got upset about something, wasn’t feeling well or was just feeling sad and quiet, they gave me a dish of ice cream. It was like a magic potion or something. Give me ice cream and life was good.”
“I didn’t know you were so easy to please,” he commented.
She shook her head. “I’m not. But back then I had nothing, so it didn’t take much.”
Kevin was staring
at her for so long that she frowned at him, wondering what was going on in his head. She finished her ice cream and put the dish on the table. She reached out and caressed his thigh.
“Are you okay?”
Kevin sighed and sat back in his chair, also having wolfed down the ice cream.
“Yeah, I’m okay. My father had a stroke. It was sudden and massive, but no one knew for more than a day.”
“Oh, Kevin,” she murmured in horror and sympathy.
“When my sister Sharon called with the news, my immediate reaction was, I’m not going. The man is nothing to me. I hadn’t seen him in maybe ten years, never heard from him. Why bother?”
“Why did you change your mind?”
Kevin closed his eyes, his brows furrowed. “’Cause if I didn’t it was going to haunt me. I was going to be angry every time I thought about the man. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life that way. I wanted it done. Over.” He looked at her calmly. “I went to say goodbye.”
“Did it help?”
“Yeah. I think so. Right now I’m still tired, but I’m glad I went for the service. He’s being buried today. I didn’t want to stay for that.”
“Still, it must have been hard for you.”
Kevin chortled, stretching out his legs and suddenly yawning.
“Probably the same for you and your mother.”
Chloe froze. Her body went on the alert, and the lethargy of love and comfort she was basking in vanished instantly. She felt like the nerves and wires of her brains had just shorted out, and she was cold.
“What did you say? What about my mother?”
Kevin seemed to collapse, dropping his head with his chin on his chest.
“What about my mother?” She raised her voice. “What do you know about her?”
“Chloe…”
She stood up. She could tell by the tone of his voice, the careful enunciation of her name. She expected him to tell her to calm down next.
Anger welled up in her. And it was equally as strong as a fear of exposure and the pain of disappointment.
“How did you find out about her? Oh, my God. Have you been following me? Spying on me?”
He stood up. “Not on purpose. Not deliberately, Chloe. It was a coincidence that I saw you and this woman together one day. She looked rough, and I was concerned about you…”
“What did you do?” she asked tightly, stepping back from his attempt to touch her.
“Listen to me! I was worried about you. You’re in the public eye. I know you hate that, but it comes with the territory. You’re successful, you’ve been seen in the press. People recognize you. I thought maybe the woman was tapping into your sympathy and wanted a handout.”
She stared at him, unable to show any understanding or forgiveness for the fact that he’d peeled back the scab on a wound that refused to heal.
“Why didn’t you just ask me? Why did you sneak around getting into my business?”
“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have been honest with me. Yes, I know the woman is your birth mother. In fact Chloe, I know more about her than you can imagine. Why? Because I wanted to make sure she wasn’t capable of doing you bodily harm. I was trying to protect you.”
She whirled on him and, judging by the stunned and apologetic expression on Kevin’s face, knew he was witnessing the full range of what she’d endured her whole life. It couldn’t be a pretty sight, but she was helpless to control it, and she was so angry that he had to see her this way. It was over. Everything was ruined, and it was Kevin’s fault for peering into her locked box of secrets.
“You can’t protect me. No one has ever been able to do that. I have no family. My background is a mystery. I’m nobody. And no matter how hard I work I’ll never overcome that, Kevin. People will always throw it up to me.
“That’s why I kept to myself in college. I didn’t want anyone to know that…that I was practically homeless. I didn’t belong anywhere!”
Chloe was in a fit of anguish. She couldn’t seem to stop the flow of words. They flew out of her mouth all by themselves. Thoughts tumbling one on top of another. She swung away from him trying to hold herself together.
She wasn’t going to cry.
She wasn’t going to cry.
Kevin was right behind her. He took hold of her upper arms, holding firmly. She jerked away.
“Chloe, stop. This is not about you. You’re fantastic! You’re beautiful and strong! You’re not responsible for your mother or what she is. That’s why I went to my father’s funeral. His life was sad, but it wasn’t my fault!”
She turned and rushed back into the room, headed out the door and hurried to the staircase. He was right behind her. She ran down.
“It’s not the same, Kevin. You had other people to nurture you and love you. I was alone.”
“Right, and you survived a bad start. Like me and my father, there’s nothing you can do for your mother.”
“I have to try!” she screamed. “You don’t understand. I have to.”
She shut out anything else Kevin was saying. Chloe didn’t know what she would do if he tried to comfort her again, to touch her. She was afraid she was going to lose it altogether. She found her purse and her keys and headed for the door.
“Don’t run away. Talk to me, dammit!”
Chloe, as he knew her, was gone. She had reverted to the young girl who felt it was her against the world. It was going to take her a while to get beyond that defense again. And she had to do it alone.
She got into her car and backed out so fast from the garage that she nearly hit a car driving by behind her. The driver blew his horn, and she hit her brakes with a screech. She heard Kevin calling her. Chloe continued backing up, shifted into Drive and shot off down the street, demons from her past hot on her trail.
Chapter 8
“You want me?”
Kevin sighed wearily and glanced up at CB, who stood quiet and stalwart, as usual.
“Yeah. Have you heard or seen anything?”
“’Bout Ms. Chloe? That woman’s not coming around no more to bother her. I drove by her house the other night, just to make sure. She seems okay. Keeping to herself. The only place she goes is to work or to the college. She’s there most nights late. Want me to keep watching?”
“No, I don’t think so. I just wanted to make sure she was safe.”
“You two broke up?” CB asked.
Kevin smiled ruefully. “Looks like it.”
“Too bad. If you want my opinion you belong together.”
“Thanks. I feel the same way.”
“What you gonna do about it?”
“Nothing for now. She needs some space. But I’ll think of something.”
“Good.” CB nodded and left.
Kevin smiled to himself after CB had gone. A man of few words, but every one of them counted.
For a moment he was distracted from his main concern to his recurring curiosity about his self-appointed “assistant.” He’d never pried into CB’s background. It was enough to have learned that he was fiercely loyal, completely dependable, and Kevin trusted the man with his life. He’d never known if it was gratitude on CB’s part because Kevin had found a job for him when it was clear that he had no obvious skills or talents. But CB, with his own quiet ways and hard work, showed he had talents that were invaluable and had served Kevin well since they’d met.
The most significant had been the attack he’d suffered, cornered on a deserted street on the wrong side of Atlanta, one night as he’d left Flavor for home…
Unusual for the time, he’d been alone, having decided he wasn’t up to dealing with any of a half-dozen women who would easily have submitted to his request that they join him for the night.
So when the black SUV behind him suddenly sped alongside and then sharply cut him off, nearly causing a collision, Kevin knew something serious was going on. He glanced around for an escape. There was none.
Three men moved so fast from the other vehicle that he
’d had no chance to capture a clear image of any of them. No request to open the door. They used a metal pipe to smash through his driver’s-side window, reaching in and opening the door.
The odds were definitely against him, but Kevin had decided that whatever the outcome he wasn’t going down like a chump. It was on!
Fists blocking and punching, he stayed on his feet and tried to keep the three men in front of him. But they had the pipe, and they were using it. He blocked the first blow with his hand and felt the bones in his wrist give way. He took a hard punch to the head and chest.
Then he saw another set of headlights drive up on the scene and thought it was over. More armed men to finish the job. In that moment Kevin was truly scared.
What the hell was going on?
Why me?
He was on his knees. He couldn’t hold out much longer.
Thank God he didn’t have to.
He heard CB’s voice. He was alone, but he approached the scene of three men bending over him fearlessly. He started swinging. He was bigger than any of the others, and he was relentless, putting his body and bulk behind each hit. Kevin remembered that he’d fallen to the ground panting in relief, clutching his throbbing wrist and tasting the blood that ran from his mouth.
Then he heard a pop—a gunshot. And then the smashing of glass, cursing, shouts.
“Get in the car! Get in the car! Move!”
Doors slammed, and the SUV sped off down the street quickly disappearing around a corner.
“You’re okay, man. Come on. Get up,” CB urged, not even out of breath, and as calm as ever.
“CB. Man, am I glad to see you. Did…did you recognize any of those guys?” He was on his feet, being helped to CB’s car.
“Couldn’t see their faces. I bet it’s all about that girl that said you’re her baby’s daddy. You told me she and her family said they’re going to get even. Good thing I was right behind you. I wondered about that car following you.”
Kevin sighed deeply, with relief and pain, once he was in the front seat of CB’s car.
“You probably saved my life. Why’d you come after me?”
