“No,” Tielle lied. “I…I missed you.”
“Liar.” Pauline snickered, but Tielle wasn’t fooled. She knew how her foster mother felt about her. Tielle had been placed with her in the last couple of years before she was old enough to be released from being a ward of the state. Yet, in that time she and Pauline had grown close, almost like mother and daughter—in a weird, never-admit-your-real-feelings kind of way. Pauline was rough, hardcore. She’d had a difficult life, had struggled up from what amounted to hell. Being a foster mom had been her way of giving back to someone else and offering them a leg up. Tielle was grateful that first someone was her. The funny thing about it was Pauline wasn’t that good of a mom.
Changing the subject, Tielle asked, “Have you learned to cook yet? After all these years, I’m still trying to get the taste of your spaghetti surprise off my tongue.”
Pauline grumbled. “I didn’t kill you. That was enough.”
“You were there for me,” Tielle admitted. “When no one cared.”
They each paused a long while. Thoughts churned in Tielle’s head about what to say. Half of what ran through her mind was sentimental expressions she knew would make Pauline uncomfortable. She loved Tielle, but Pauline showed her love in other ways. Tielle had thought hearing her voice would be enough. She sighed.
“What is it, girl?” Pauline demanded.
Tielle chewed the inside of her lip, deciding what to say. “I have a friend.” She cringed at the age old friend excuse, but forged on. “All of a sudden, some weird things are happening in her life.”
“Weird things?”
She was muddling this explanation bad, but how could she tell Pauline about Stone and about the guy calling to pretend he was his secretary, only to later be followed by the real secretary? This might all amount to nothing, and she was getting worked up for no reason. But when she had a nightmare behind it and she went about checking and rechecking the doors and windows in her apartment, she had to find a way to settle her mind.
“Maybe it’s nothing. She’s probably making a mountain out of a molehill,” she said with a chuckle.
“Sounds like your friend is used to wrestling control over every aspect of her life.” Leave it to Pauline to jump to the meat of the problem. “I don’t know what you mean by weird, but it may be that she either can’t get rid of these things or can’t find an easy fix for them. She’s feeling out of control. She needs that control to survive, and because she doesn’t have it in this situation, she’s afraid.”
Tielle squeaked, annoyed. “I didn’t say she’s afraid.”
“Sure she is. You don’t call late at night when you’re not afraid, Tielle. And no one needs control in their life like you. You spent so many years tossed around from one foster home to the next, in one bad situation after another. You were young, and you had no power to say stop, enough is enough. After you grew up, you learned to be bold, to face everything like a locomotive, barreling over it if necessary, shoveling it aside if possible. You set your sights on your goals, and you forge ahead. When something comes along that you can’t push aside and you can’t fix, you become afraid, and all of a sudden you’re that little girl again.”
Tielle drew up her knees and dropped her head on them as tears filled her eyes. She told herself this situation wasn’t that serious, but it didn’t stop the fears. Pauline knew her well, and although she didn’t want to admit it, her foster mom was right. Tielle never allowed herself to enter situations she couldn’t control because of the feelings it evoked in her. She’d get in the face of any problem and pummel it down.
On the one hand, meeting a hot guy, a freaky call, being followed seemed like a big deal. On the other, it felt like she was blowing it all out of proportion, and maybe it was all behind her. The thing was, at least in her subconscious, she didn’t think this was the end of it, that something bigger was coming, and she wanted no part of it.
“So, what do I do?”
Pauline clucked with her tongue. “You beat it down, girl! I’ve taught you to be strong, to face everything head on. You’re strong as steel. I know within a few days, you’ll be calling back to tell me you kicked that problem’s ass, and you’re moving ahead just like always. Whatever happens you don’t draw back. You hear me?”
Tielle grinned through her tears and wiped her face. “Yeah, I hear you. Always like a drill sergeant. That’s why I love you, Pauline.”
Pauline grunted. “I…I love you too.”
* * * *
Joe switched seats at the table they occupied in the restaurant and leaned over to whisper in her ear. “My place or yours?”
Tielle cocked an eyebrow at him. She should check him for assuming just because he bought dinner, she should put out, but the truth was, she’d decided the moment she opened the door to him earlier. Joe was a sexy as hell half Puerto Rican half African American man who she’d had fun with when they were dating. After she broke it off, she wasn’t sure just why he and she didn’t fit. It wasn’t like she’d been looking for Mr. Right. Her focus was on her career goals and nothing else. She had no solid plans for finding a husband or having kids one day. Somehow, she’d always expected that part of her life would fall into place when she was ready. But keeping Joe in her life for sex alone hadn’t felt right either.
“Well?” Joe insisted.
She grinned. “You’re getting pushy in your old age, Joe.”
“Hey, I’m twenty-eight, only a year older than you, miss lady.” He rested a hand on her thigh, and a tingle started higher up between her legs. The squeeze Joe gave her told her he remembered just how to please her and knew what her appetite for sex was like. Temptation was in her face, hard.
“Yeah, well, I’m still younger,” she said amused. “How do I know you haven’t become rusty since last I saw you? From the action you’ve gotten in the club, I’m a little worried.”
He licked her earlobe. She shivered.
“You’ve been watching me? Mm, wanna feel how hard I’m getting knowing you’ve kept those sexy brown eyes on me?”
Tielle should have been focused on Joe’s words and letting his natural ability to tease and get her excited work its magic. Instead she squinted toward the opposite side of the restaurant, in the direction of the bathrooms. Had she just seen someone familiar, or was her mind playing tricks on her?
She excused herself to go take a look, but when she got to the bathrooms, she didn’t see anyone except a stranger. When the man entered the men’s room, she considered asking him to see if someone else was there but changed her mind. It had to be that freaky dream from the night before and not getting enough sleep. “Too much school and too much partying,” she muttered on the way back to Joe.
When she drew up to the table, she noted the eager way he watched her swaying hips. Adding a little extra didn’t hurt. The man was almost salivating, but somehow Tielle wasn’t as turned on as she had been in the past. Never mind, she wasn’t backing out. Joe would show her a good time.
After plucking her jacket from the empty chair and tucking her purse beneath her arm, she swung away from the table. “Coming, Joe?” she called over her shoulder. Like a trained puppy, he bounded after her, and they left the restaurant. “Your place, okay?”
“Your wish is my command.” Joe behind the wheel of a car was a deadly weapon. Tielle held on for dear life. They made the twenty minute drive to his place in ten. Joe hopped out and ran around her side of the vehicle.
Tielle put her hand in his and stepped out. She paused when a black sports car pulled into the space next to them. Tielle recognized the kind of car it was but couldn’t put her finger on what it was called.
Joe whistled. “Lamborghini Gallardo. Damn, nobody around here can afford that. Man, is that thing sweet. A hundred ninety-eight easy.”
“T-Thousand?” Tielle stuttered.
“Yeah,” Joe said, still focused on the car. “Wonder what he does for a living.”
The next instant, Tielle was less concerned abo
ut what the man did for a living and more shocked at who it was. Her knees went weak, and the breath whooshed right out of her chest when Stone unfolded his tall form from the sports car. She thought it must be the most insane of coincidences that he knew someone who lived here in Joe’s apartment complex. That is, until he turned those steely eyes in her direction.
“Tielle,” he said with obvious disappointment in his tone, “I hope you weren’t planning on spending the night with this man. I’d be heartbroken if I thought I’d rushed back to the U.S. only to miss out on the woman I couldn’t get out of my head after our last encounter.”
Both Tielle’s and Joe’s mouths fell open. Tielle could not think of a comment as Stone strolled around the front of his car and approached them. While he drew close, she compared the two men without thinking. Stone stretched a good four inches taller than Joe whom she’d always considered having a good height. Stone’s shoulders were broader, his jaw firmer, and the raw power that seemed to roll off of him eclipsed poor Joe in the worse way.
Joe appeared to see his shortcomings as well put next to Stone, and he shrank back a little, not saying a word. Stone acted like he didn’t even see Joe. He strolled around him and blocked Tielle’s view of anyone but himself as he towered above her. A finger at her chin, he tilted her head back to make her look at him. “So?” he said.
“You want…” she began.
His voice dropped low along with his gaze, which settled on her cleavage. The expression in his eyes was just short of a caress in itself. If she thought her desires were on simmer tonight, they had just exploded with one look from Stone.
“I want you.”
Chapter Seven
Tielle blinked and shook her head to break the spell Stone weaved over her common sense. She threw her hands on her hips and took two steps back to put space between her and him. “Excuse me? I save your life, risking my career, and you disappear, not even leaving a note.” One at a time, she ticked off his offenses. “Then I get crazy phone calls, a wacko butler or servant or whatever he was.” He seemed about to comment, but she raised her hand. “You think I’m going to drop my boyfriend for you? Not happening, buddy boy.”
She spun on the ball of her foot, all the time pretending she didn’t want to fling herself into Stone’s arms. Of course, there was no way she could sleep with Joe tonight after this scene straight out of a romance movie with Stone, but she had no clue how to extricate herself and just go home.
“Hey, Tielle, maybe we should call it a night and pick up some other time,” Joe suggested.
She gasped. “What? No.” She took his arm trying to save face, and almost dragged him toward the building. They hadn’t gone far when she was tempted to look back at Stone. He waited with folded arms over his chest, looking too damn confident in himself. Tielle’s stubborn streak kicked in, and she would have had sex with Joe just to prove Stone had no appeal, but Joe wasn’t going for it.
Joe put a hand up to the door and wouldn’t let her open it. “Stop, Tielle.”
“What’s wrong with you? I thought you wanted this.”
Frustration registered in his eyes as he glanced down at her body. “You don’t know how much. But that’s not important. From the moment he drove up and got out, you’ve been his. I see it in every move you make. He’s got you wired and aching. That’s how it was with us in the beginning. I saw that you weren’t that way earlier, but I thought I could tease you into it. I know how much fun it is making love to a woman as wild as you are in bed. But if you’re not feeling it…” He shrugged. “I’ll kick myself in the morning, but truthfully, I would never want you when you’re thinking of another man. And there’s no way I could compete with that.”
Joe’d tipped his chin toward Stone, and she glanced over to him again. She couldn’t lie. Her panties were ruined, and it was all Stone’s fault. By the time she turned back to Joe, he was disappearing through the door. Apparently, he was resolved to leave her in Stone’s hands. What if he was some psycho? “Thanks a lot, Joe,” she grumbled and started back to the street.
Stopping in front of Stone, she clenched her hands at her sides. “Can I bum a ride from you back to my place? I shouldn’t trust you to take me, but it’s not like you don’t already know where I live. Call it a temporary lack of judgment.”
“You’re angry with me.” The fact that he didn’t get why she was upset puzzled her.
“You’re kidding, right?” She shook her head, accepting his help into his car. The thing was too sweet. The doors opened straight up rather than out, which was freaky, but once she was seated, the luxury and comfort came through.
Although Stone’s car could blow Joe’s away in speed, Stone exercised control behind the wheel. He kept to no more than ten miles over the speed limit, but Tielle still enjoyed watching the way his muscles shifted and bulged as he turned the steering wheel and shifted gears.
“I guess you have no side effects to what you went through the other night?” she asked.
“None. As I said, I just needed a little time.”
“You could have injured yourself further by yanking out the IV. This isn’t the movies, you know.”
“Yes.”
She peered at him through her lashes. “So what are you compensating for with all this power?” She gestured to the car.
Stone laughed. “Compensating? Ah, you mean is my flute inadequate.”
She frowned. “Flute?”
He winked. “I assure you my cock is more than enough to satisfy you.”
Tielle almost melted through the chair. She tried to pretend his use of raw language didn’t have an effect on her, but she had a feeling she failed in the worst way. Biting on a finger while pressing her legs together, she stared out the window. Stone’s chuckle pissed her off, but it wasn’t his fault her body sang for his touch. Maybe it was his fault. She checked out his thighs, firm behind his dark slacks. She wondered if he was hairy or if he was tanned under his clothing.
How she loved a white man’s body. She’d dated black men, white ones, even one Chinese, and of course Joe who was half Puerto Rican, but there was something about a white man that was so sexy. His creamy light skin in comparison to her deep chocolate made Tielle want to lick him from head to toe—and she’d done that on many occasions. That’s why Joe had said she was good in bed. Tielle loved sex, and she wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted when the circumstances were right.
“Says you,” she quipped. “I’ve heard that claim so many times. I even met a man who told me he was ten inches and found he was closer to four and a half. Not that size is everything.” She eyed him and was surprised at how he leaned back a little, comfortable with his body. The man was rock hard, the tent in his pants scary big.
At her apartment, he let her go ahead of him, and she unlocked the door and stepped inside. Tossing her keys on a side table, she called over her shoulder, “Would you like something to drink?” Her shoes which seemed to pop off her feet every time she hit home, were left beside the couch, and she padded barefoot into the kitchen. Stone followed close behind. He had no compunctions about exploring her ass while he was back there. She glared at him but didn’t tell him to keep his hands to himself.
“If you have wine, that would be nice,” he commented.
Tielle took down the wine glasses from the cabinet over the sink and removed a bottle of wine she’d had chilling from the refrigerator. She poured the two of them some while Stone rested his hip against her counter. Her hands shook a little with him so close, his gaze intense. No man had unsettled her this much, and that Stone was doing just that made her even more nervous.
To get his attention off of her, she said, “How about something to eat? I’m not hungry since I had dinner, but what about you?”
He shrugged. “I could eat.” The look he gave her indicated something far different from food. Tielle brushed from her mind the thought of him with is head tucked between her thighs. Instead, she spun to search her tiny kitchen for anything sh
e could whip up with ease. Domestic skills were low on her list of abilities.
“I’m not the world’s best, but I do make a mean omelet. I usually add swiss cheese, peppers, and onions. Does that sound appetizing?” She peeked at him. He appeared ravenous. “Just who are you, Stone Hughes?”
His eyes widened, and she noted the way he stiffened. “How do you know my last name?”
“The night you were attacked, your father called on your cell. I noticed his last name was Hughes and assumed. Was I wrong?”
“No.” He shook his head, his gaze unfocused as if he was considering what to admit. “No, you’re not wrong. I am Stone Hughes.”
She set the egg down she’d taken out and put her hands on her hips. “You say that like you’re somebody important, and I’m beginning to wonder the same. I mean you drive a Lamborghini for Pete’s sake, and you have a secretary named James.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but she cut him off and turned back to the food. “That’s not important right now. Don’t worry about it. Your growling stomach is hinting that if I don’t make this omelet quick you’re liable to eat me for dinner.”
In that minute, Tielle was grateful for her dark skin. She blushed, something she never did, when she said he was liable to eat her. Did everything she blurted out have to have sexual overtones? Her usual cool teasing had gone out the window the moment they were in her private space and he wasn’t flat on his back unconscious.
She faced the eggs and worked like her life depended on it. About to demand what the hell was going on with him, she lost her nerve and stopped him from answering. This was way out of character for her, and if she didn’t get a grip quick, tonight and maybe the next few days would be full of regrets.
* * * *
Stone vacated the position he’d taken up a few feet from Tielle so he could watch her cook. He moved to stand behind her and let his hands come down on her shoulders. A tremor went through her body. Something told him Tielle wasn’t used to being out of control, and that’s just what she felt in his presence. Knowing it pleased him. He liked to keep the woman he had interest in guessing about him. That is, until she learned how rich his family was. Then all the mystery was gone, at least on her part. She’d become a clingy simpleton that he couldn’t remove without a fight, and he would be forced to find a new bed partner. Tonight, he considered looking for Tielle in a rental, something less flashy and expensive, but deep inside, he found he wanted her to know the truth right from the start, to judge whether she was like every other woman. He didn’t expect her to be different, but he wanted to her to be. Maybe that was unfair.
Dragon Song Page 5
