Strong Heat

by Niobia Bryant

  Round. And around. And around.

  Lisha’s head shake said no at the torture, but her body said yes as she spread her legs wide like propellers as she moved her hips in that wicked circular motion with him.

  “Wait . . . don’t move,” he said, pressing his face into her neck as his body went rigid.

  She purred as she felt his dick throb against her walls.

  When he finally began stroking inside of her again, the movements were slickened and she knew that he had cum a little inside of her.

  Pressing her feet to the cold wood floors, she arched her body and pressed against his shoulders. “I wanna ride you,” she whispered.

  He looked surprised by her demand, but held her tightly around her waist as he turned them over until his back and buttocks were pressed against the shockingly cold wood and Lisha was straddling him with his dick still rooted deep within her.

  Pressing her hands into his chest and not caring that her knees scraped against the hard floor, Lisha sat up straight and took over the ride, wanting to take control of pushing this particular stallion across his finish line.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said, his eyes taking in all of her. The pleasure on her face. Her gently rounded shoulders. The back and forth sway of her full pendulous breasts as she moved her rounded hips.

  “That’s my dick.”

  Kael brought one hand up to massage her breast and tease her nipple as the other clutched deeply at her hip as he enjoyed her work. “You asking me or telling me?”

  Lisha locked her feet beneath his thighs and shifted her upper body so that every thrust of her hip milked his dick as she rode him fast and hard until his hands fell from her body and grasped wildly as he cried out and arched his back, nearly knocking her off the dick, as he came with force inside her.

  With a cry she fell down onto his chest and continued her ride as her own climax sent her into convulsions and made her clit sensitive. When her release seemed to keep her from moving, his hands returned to grasp her hips and bring her up and down on his dick as he thrust upward, sending her free-falling.

  Long endless moments later they both lay panting on the floor, sweat soaking their bodies and their hearts thundering as they waited for the calm after the sexy storm.

  “I guess you told me,” he joked in between gulps of air.

  Lisha worked up just enough strength to raise her head from his chest to wink at him.

  In a world caught between slumber and sleep, Lisha woke up with a start, sitting up straight in bed and clutching the sheets to her body as she looked around at her bedroom cloaked in darkness with only the light from the living room offering slight illumination.

  She was alone and in bed.

  Not at Kael’s home.

  Not making love to him on the floor.

  It was all just a dream. Still, with the throbbing of her core and the dampness of her panties she had experienced the climax.

  She fell back down on the bed and covered her face with her hands as her cheeks warmed in embarrassment. She could only hope to be so alive and sexy and take-charge when she did make love to her husband one day. The little Lisha knew about sex she got from Junie . . . but riding a man, oral sex, stroking a dick until it almost came in her hand—those were things she had no real experience with.

  Lisha shook her head as if to clear it of the erotic images.

  When she left Kael’s house she had kept running until she was in her car and headed to her apartment in Walterboro. She couldn’t believe that she kissed him with such passion and let him know more about her body than she had offered any man she’d been in a relationship with.

  And Kael made it clear that they were not in one and he wasn’t looking for one.

  She’d gone too far and could have easily gone further if the feel of his hard dick hadn’t scared her shitless. Kael was . . . large . . . long . . . lethal. His erection had shaken her out of her sexual daze and she knew she had to get away from him.

  And now he was in her dreams.

  You make it so hard to ignore you, Lisha. Without even trying.

  Her main takeaway from his comment by the door was that regardless of anything, he was trying to ignore her, and Lisha realized that she needed to do the same to him or risk getting hurt.

  Climbing from the bed she made her way to the living room and turned on the television before snuggling into a corner of the couch. It was just a little after ten and she wasn’t ready to go back to sleep. There was no way she could trust herself in her dreams tonight.

  Chapter 8

  Kael stood back out of the kitchen and surveyed his handiwork. The wooden floors now gleamed after he worked until well after midnight stripping and then staining them. Wiping his hands on the rag he had stuffed in his back pocket, he nodded in approval. Like most men, he wasn’t concerned about décor, but he had to admit that he liked the dark green curtains Kelli had bought for him as a housewarming present.

  As he walked down the hall, each footstep echoed throughout the house. The only room he even bothered to furnish yet was his bedroom and even that was just a bed and nightstands. He wasn’t planning on moving in until his father was as close to a hundred percent as possible or he finally got the old man to agree to move in with him.

  Kael was beginning to wonder if he was anywhere near either one.

  He paused as he came into the living room. His eyes fell on the newly installed phone sitting on the floor in the corner. If he had Lisha’s number he would call her.

  And say what? Can I kiss you again?

  So many hours had passed since their heated moments against the wall and he was still shaken by the fire between them. The feel of her lips on his was branded. The softness of her body was unforgettable. He couldn’t believe he almost nut himself just from grinding against her.

  “Shake it off, Kael,” he told himself, before walking throughout the house and turning off all but the lights in the living room. He pulled his keys from his pocket and left the house, locking the door and jogging down the stairs to his truck.

  Jim had long since placed the horses in the trailer and dropped them off to be housed along with his father’s horse in the small barn at the far rear of his property. The man was a godsend. He was just as knowledgeable about cattle ranching as Kael, if not more so.

  Opening the truck door, Kael took a moment to look back at the large house softy lit by the moon. An image of Lisha walking out the door and waiting for him on the porch played out before him, surprising and pleasing him at the same time. A woman waiting to properly greet her man home after a long day of work.

  Before the end of his last relationship, that was the life he wanted. A wife. Family. Children. A house filled with laughter and love.

  But not now. Not yet.

  Shaking his head to clear it, Kael climbed into his truck, patting the dash. He’d had it towed from Charleston and after checking it, discovered a leak in his oil line. He did a temporary fix with silicone tape with plans to get it replaced by a mechanic this weekend.

  Driving the short distance to his father’s home, Kael thought back to the cause for Lisha’s anger. No matter her intention, his sister had been out of line. And he planned to let her know about it.

  But when he pulled up to the house and climbed out from the truck, he wondered if he even needed to say a word.

  “I am a grown-ass man. Your father. Don’t you forget it, Kelli.”

  Logan Strong was a man rare to raise his voice and Kael figured his sister going against his wishes would warrant a rare tirade. Even though he was tired from a full day of work at King’s Ranch and his own, Kael sat down on the metal bench of the porch instead of step inside the middle of their argument.

  “I just think it would be better if you go to Charleston for your treatment,” Kelli said. “I was only trying to help.”

  At the sound of tears in his sister’s voice, Kael leaned forward and braced his elbows on his knees as he shook his head. That should about do it, he
thought. Kelli knew the waterworks worked with both of the Strong men.

  “Those crocodile tears won’t work this time, Kelli,” his father said, his voice still hard and still angry.

  Kael sat up straight in surprise, his face incredulous.

  “But Daddy—”

  “But Daddy, hell. Fix it.”

  Moments later a door slammed and echoed through the house.

  Seconds later the screen door opened and closed. Kael looked over to see which one joined him on the porch. “Hey, sis,” he said, moving over on the bench.

  She eased down beside him, knocking her knee against his. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so mad . . . especially at me. I’m his favorite,” she said.

  Kael chuckled. “Maybe not anymore,” he teased.

  She punched his arm before laying her head on his shoulder. “I was only trying to help,” she explained.

  “How?” Kael asked, seriously confused.

  She sat up. “Oh, God. You, too?”

  He nodded. “Pretty much,” he admitted.

  Kelli threw her hands up.

  “He doesn’t want to make the trip into Charleston twice a week. It’s just that simple,” he told her.

  “Okay. There’s physical therapists in Walterboro.”

  “He likes Lisha.” Kael swatted away a mosquito that had landed on his hand. Standing up, he turned off the porch light, hoping not to attract any more of the blood-sucking creatures.

  “And so do you.”

  He paused for a half second before sitting back down. “She really works well with him,” he said, leaving it at that even as his gut clenched at the thought of Lisha.

  Kelli just sucked air between her teeth.

  “Well, you can thank me because it’s already fixed. I told Lisha you made a mistake,” he said, rising to his feet to walk past her to the door.

  “You talked to her? When? Where’d you see her?” Kelli asked, rising to follow him into the house.

  Kael frowned. “It’s fixed. She’ll be back here Friday,” he said, before walking into his bedroom and closing the door securely.

  He needed a shower, and whatever his sister cooked for dinner smelled good, but Kael just kicked off his boots and lay down on the bed, not even bothering to turn on the air. As he shifted onto his side his eyes fell on the phone sitting atop the phone book on his nightstand next to a picture of him as a teenager in his high school football uniform.

  Reaching for the phone and the phone book, he sat up and flipped through the pages before using his finger to turn the rotary dial.

  The phone rang three or four times and he felt nervous as he waited.

  “Hello.”

  He smiled. “Hi, Lisha, it’s Kael.”

  She said nothing and the sound of her television played in the background. He sat all the way up, setting his feet on the carpeted floor.

  “Lisha, you there?” he asked.

  “Kael, I—”

  “No, I just wanted to . . . I just . . .”

  “Wanted what, Kael?”

  He opened his mouth and then closed it, shaking his head. Talk to you. Hear your voice. Kiss you again.

  But he knew he couldn’t say those things no matter how true. Lisha wasn’t a one-time chick at all.

  “I just wanted to make sure you got home okay,” he lied.

  “I did. Thank you,” she said, her voice husky above the sound of her television playing in the background. “Kael, listen. I’m not expecting anything because of that . . . that . . . that kiss today, you know.”

  He flopped back onto the bed. “It was some kiss,” he said, wanting to know if she felt what he felt too.

  “Yeah, it was, but unless you changed your mind about things, that was the first and the last.”

  “Changed my mind?” he asked, stalling because he didn’t want to end the sound of her voice in his ear.

  “Yes, Kael,” she said gently. “Have you changed your mind?”

  “No,” he admitted reluctantly.

  “That’s cool,” she said, even though her tone belied otherwise.

  Something about her made him want to take the risk. But what if he was wrong? What if everything about her looked and sounded good but it was just a façade? He believed the very best about his ex, denied the things others told him about her because he believed the very best . . . and look at the end result. No, for now he would just give up what the right ones had to offer and focus on his business.

  “So I guess I’ll see your father Friday, then,” she said.

  He didn’t want the call to end. “Okay.”

  “Y’all probably should speak with my bosses and make sure we’re all back on the same page,” she suggested.

  He nodded and licked his lips. “Okay. That makes sense.”

  “Okay, then. Good-bye, Kael.”

  “Good—”

  Click.

  He was left with nothing but the dial tone. He hung up the receiver and left his bedroom to walk to his father’s. The door was still shut. He knocked once.

  “Come in.”

  Kael opened the door and stood in the doorway. His father was lying in bed doing his leg exercises. “How you feeling?” he asked.

  Logan glanced over at him before looking back up at the ceiling as he raised and lowered his leg slowly. “Pissed.”

  Kael smiled. “Lisha’s looking forward to seeing you Friday,” he said.

  Logan paused in his leg lifts.

  “So how you feeling now?” he asked.

  Logan nodded and continued his exercise. “Better.”

  “I figured as much,” he quipped before turning to leave.

  “All women ain’t the same, son.”

  Kael paused and then turned. “Sir?”

  Logan lowered his leg and waved his son over as he carefully turned his body before bending his legs and sitting up on the side of the bed.

  Kael came to stand over him.

  Logan leaned back a bit and looked up. “Man, sit your tall ass down,” he said. “Makes me think you ’bout to knock me out and we both know—bad hip or not—you don’t want to fool up with that.”

  Kael sat down on the trunk pushed against the wall. A trunk in which he knew his father kept all of his mementos of their mother.

  “That Donna wasn’t shit,” he began.

  Kael flinched.

  “It didn’t matter how much love, how much support, how much money or how much dick you put on her . . . she didn’t know how to be faithful.”

  Kael squinted.

  “What she did is all about her and not about you. Hell, she doing the same shit to the man she live with now,” Logan said, waving his hand dismissively.

  Kael looked surprised.

  “But all women ain’t her, son,” Logan said, locking eyes with Kael.

  Kael nodded in understanding.

  “I know she hurt you, but you don’t let her win by not moving on.”

  “Is this about Lisha?” Kael asked.

  “You damn right it is,” Logan spouted. “Hardworking girl, preacher’s daughter, pretty as all get out, nice as can be—”

  “You’re really selling her,” Kael drawled.

  “You’re really missing out on her, son,” Logan shot back.

  Kael thought about the kiss they shared and completely agreed, although his father meant more than just her sexuality.

  “If you can’t trust a preacher’s daughter, who can you trust?” Logan said.

  “Sometimes they’re the worst ones.”

  Logan pointed at him. “All women ain’t the same, son,” he repeated.

  “Dad—”

  Both Kael and Logan looked up as Kelli came to stand in the doorway. They fell silent and Kael felt sorry for his sister because it was clear that their father was still annoyed with her.

  “Did Kael tell you about Lisha?” she asked, coming in to sit beside him on the bed.

  Logan nodded. “Yes. No need to talk about it anymore,” he said, reaching ov
er to pat her knee twice.

  All was forgiven.

  “I thought the actual clinic in Charleston would help you recover quickly,” she said. “But I should have talked to you first.”

  “Lisha did mention adding pool therapy to your treatment,” Kael added, trying to help his sister out.

  “I’d have to go to Charleston?” he asked.

  “We don’t have a pool here,” Kelli said.

  Logan just grunted.

  That was a no.

  Kael chuckled as he stood up and left the room hoping, as he left his father and sister, that they could mend the small tear in the relationship. Plus he had a lot of his own issues on his mind.

  You’re really missing out on her, son.

  Knock-knock.

  Lisha shifted her eyes from the TV screen long enough to glance at the door. “Use your key, Junie,” she called out, far too comfortable to rise from her spot stretched out on the sofa.

  “It’s Kael.”

  Lisha gasped in shock as she jumped up in her sock-covered feet. She tiptoed over to the door and pressed one eye against the peephole. Not that she had any doubts, but it was indeed Kael.

  “What does he want?” she mouthed even as she rushed into the bathroom to yank every roller off her head and then rinse with mouthwash.

  She rushed out of the bathroom and turned, almost slamming into the wall before a quick shift sent her running through the door to yank off her nightgown and quickly pull on a yellow sweat suit.

  Knock-knock.

  She paused, considering a spray of perfume and a dash of lipstick, but decided against it. Glancing at the clock, she made her way back to the front door and took a breath to steady herself before stepping back to open it.

  Kael was heading down the stairs, but looked back.

  “Hey,” she said, smiling at him even as she felt overwhelmed still by his sudden appearance at her front door.

  He retraced his steps, looking handsome in jeans and a dark navy T-shirt that molded to his chest. The color of the shirt made his complexion and the silvery tint of his hair all the more appealing. She closed her eyes for a second, remembering the taste of his lips with a slight tremble that made her clutch the doorknob tight enough to snap it off.