Over Heated (On the Wild Side Book 3)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  He lowered his head slightly, a teasing glint to his eyes confirming her accusation. “All in an effort to get you to smile. You’re way too serious at work.”

  Roxanne smothered her amusement, not wanting to encourage him. Although, she wasn’t completely successful at hiding her laughter. “Yes, well, I consider my job to be serious.”

  “It is. I’m not denying that.”

  “But…”

  “I think the real issue is that you’re afraid to like me.”

  “I am not!”’ she gasped.

  “Because if you like me, then you might fall for me. And if you fall for me, you might not live up to your mother’s standards.”

  Roxanne blinked wordlessly at him.

  Was that the issue? Was she trying to make her mother happy? Was she trying to get her mother to see that she was a good person? That she was worthy of her mother’s love and respect?

  The air in her lungs hissed out as she came to another conclusion. Even if her mother was alive, Roxanne knew that her mother would never approve of Roxanne’s life choices. Never! Myrtle was one of those bitter women who wanted to hate everyone. For some reason, Roxy’s mother was miserable and wanted everyone else to be miserable with her.

  Perhaps if she’d known more about her mother’s past, about what had made her into such a bitter, angry woman, Roxanne could have come to terms with her mother’s attitude a while ago.

  “I’ve spent so much time trying to live up to her standards!” Roxanne whispered, still struggling to understand how much her mother’s disapproval had impacted her life’s choices.

  “What were some of her rules?”

  “Well, sex was bad.”

  “She didn’t believe in sex before marriage?” he asked. “That’s pretty…”

  “No,” Roxanne interrupted. “All sex was bad. She believed anyone having sex outside of an effort to conceive a child were sinful.”

  He pulled back with that clarification. “That’s crazy!”

  Roxanne shrugged and pulled out of his arms. “Yeah, intellectually, I knew that. But I grew up with her ranting about the ‘sins of the flesh’ and how sex was the root of all evil. Not just some evil. Nope!” Roxy threw her hands into the air. “All evil! Everything wrong with the world was based on sex. Greed? That was only because men wanted women to be attracted to them, so that they could have sex. Over eating? People wanting sex and not using their minds to control their bodies. Sex made them weak! Sex made humanity wrong and evil and…” she took a breath, only now realizing how virulent her mother had been over the years. “Goodness, now that I really think about it, my mother was a bit of a nutcase, wasn’t she?”

  Roxanne turned back to face Abe, but he only shrugged. “I was thinking it, but I wasn’t going to say it.”

  Roxanne started pacing over the rough, weed-tangled grass. Her mother mowed the backyard, but refused to spend money on ensuring that she was mowing grass.

  More pacing and she was really working up a big bit of steam. “She was a lunatic that never should have had children. Why in the world did she get pregnant if she hated sex so badly?”

  Abe watched, fascinated as Roxy walked back and forth. She was furious now. After her crying fit earlier, he suspected that she really needed the flip side of her emotions now. Anger over her mother’s treatment during her childhood years, acknowledging the damage that the woman had caused on Roxy’s psyche was positive. Getting it all out there, acknowledging it was a hell of a lot more healthy than trying to stifle her emotions. Stifled emotions only led to bitterness, which is where Roxy’s mother had been.

  “Do you think she had any old photo albums?” he asked, thinking there could be a clue as to the older woman’s attitudes.

  Roxy paused, then shook her head. “Would it matter?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Exactly. My mother had her reasons. She never wanted me to succeed. But she’s gone now.”

  “But you did succeed.”

  “I did!”

  “Yep. You’re a role model for others. Your personal integrity and worth ethic are exemplary.” She looked at him and suddenly, Abe had no idea what was going through her mind. “What’s wrong?”

  She took a breath. “I need to break all of her rules!”

  Abe tilted his head. “I think…”

  “Yes!” she interrupted again, her idea gaining steam in her mind. “I need to break all of her rules and prove to myself that she was wrong.”

  “What are some of the rules you need to break?” he asked, hoping that no-sex was one of those rules. He could really get on board with breaking that rule!

  “I want to cook something decadent!” she announced. “I want to make…scones!” she whispered, licking her lips in anticipation.

  Of all the thing she might have started with, scones didn’t seem too horrible. “Why scones?” he asked carefully. He wanted to get back to that sex issue.

  “My mother considered anything that originated outside of the United States to be evil. Scones are a British thing, hence their inherent evilness. So, I’ve never had a scone before.”

  He chuckled. “Honey, you know that a scone is a type of biscuit, right?”

  Roxy blinked. “Are they? I’ve never had one.”

  “Not even when you grabbed coffee at the store?”

  “I don’t get gourmet coffee,” she replied. “That would be a frivolous waste of money and time,” she recited, using a mocking tone of voice. He wondered if that was the way her mother used to talk.

  “Gourmet coffee is fast and convenient, but I don’t get one every day,” Abe argued.

  Roxanne paced some more. “Exactly! You get coffee from a coffee shop as a treat! Not an everyday thing, but when you want one, you get it, and you haven’t gone broke yet, have you?”

  “Not really,” he laughed softly.

  She turned to glare at him. “Have you ever left your house without making your bed?”

  The abrupt change in subjects threw him. “Uh…yes.”

  “I haven’t.” She huffed and resumed pacing. “My mother used to tell me that leaving the house without everything in its place was wrong. I even made perfect corners on my bed with the sheets and blankets because she said it looked better and I’d sleep better.”

  That made no sense. “How does it make you sleep better to make your bed in the morning?”

  “I don’t know!” she replied, exasperated as she threw her hands in the air. “In fact, I hate having my feet tucked in so, every night, I have to pull and tug the sheets away so that they aren’t tucked in. Then every morning, I have to remake the whole bed!”

  “Sounds like a pain in the ass.”

  “It is!” She stopped and looked at him, her lips quivering a bit. Not like she was going to cry, thank goodness. But…he wasn’t sure what was going on in her head. “I’ve never cussed,” she confessed in a whisper.

  Abe stared up at her. “Never?”

  “Nope!” she replied, almost quivering at the idea.

  He stood up and moved close again. “Say something bad.”

  Roxanne stared up at him, opened her mouth, but the words wouldn’t come.

  He chuckled and moved even closer. “Come on,” he coaxed. “Just say ‘damn’ for me. I guarantee that the earth isn’t going to open up and pull you down to perish in the fires of hell.”

  She laughed, shaking her head. “No, I’m not going to say that. I don’t believe that hell will swallow me. But…well, I just don’t see the need to say that word.”

  Abe laughed, pulling her into his arms for a hug. “You’re adorable, Roxy,” he told her and kissed the top of her head. “By the end of today, you’re going to say ‘damn’ and you’re going to acknowledge that it’s okay.”

  “Right,” she mumbled, breathing in his scent, which was spicy and very male. She felt good and sexy in his arms, even though a part of her wanted him to push her against the house and kiss her again. And a whole lot more!

  But
if she couldn’t even say… that word…then how was she going to break through her mother’s mental conditioning and go further with Abe?

  Good grief, she couldn’t even say one stupid word that wasn’t even all that bad!

  “Come with me,” he ordered but didn’t wait for her to comply. Abe simply took her hand and tugged her back into the house. “Get me a piece of paper.”

  Roxanne walked over to the kitchen drawer and pulled out the notepaper and a pen that her mother always kept there for messages. The woman didn’t believe in an answering machine, saying that if a person was too lazy to answer her phone, she didn’t deserve to know who was calling.

  “What are you going to do?”

  He shook his head and pushed the paper towards her, leaning onto the counter with his arms. “Not me, you. Write down five of the strictest rules your mother laid out over the years.”

  She shrugged, then listed the ones that her mother had been the most vehement about. “Making the bed before leaving the house,” she read out loud. “No sex.” She wrote that down. “No frivolous spending. Cover skin, even in the summer months.”

  “Is that why you wear long sleeves all the time?”

  Roxy glanced down at her shirt, the sleeves rolled up slightly. “Yes. My mother thought that women who wore short sleeves were hussies trying to attract men.”

  “Huh!” he said, shaking his head slightly.

  She put the pen down. “All of the other issues revolve around the same problem.”

  “Sex,” he said softly, watching her carefully.

  “Exactly.” She fiddled with the pen nervously. “I need to have sex.”

  He chuckled and took her hand, tugging her gently around the small island in the center of the kitchen. “How about if I help you in the baby steps?”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “Let’s go to a coffee shop and order the most decadent coffee on the menu? You could even have whipped cream on top.”

  She cringed. “I don’t know if I could do that.”

  He lowered his head and tickled her neck with his lips. “Fine. Baby steps. We’ll get you a cup of coffee with some flavored syrup in it. Would that be crazy enough for you?”

  She laughed at his ridiculous offer, but yeah. It worked. “I think I might actually enjoy that.”

  “And tonight, how about if you let me take you out on a date? A real date. One where I pick you up and you dress up in a short-sleeved dress for me and yourself. I will take you out to a restaurant, you will order the most expensive thing on the menu, and then…”

  He left the rest of the suggestion hanging.

  “And then?” she prompted when he acted as if he might just let it go.

  “Nope,” he replied. “You’re going to have to wing it. No plans after dinner. If you want to come back to my place for some hot and heavy necking, then we’ll do that. If you want me to drive you home, then we’ll do that instead. No plans. No predetermined list of activities. You’re going to have to listen to your feelings and decide spur of the moment.”

  Her lips widened in a wince. “You know I’m not very good at spur of the moment decisions, Abe.”

  “Yeah, I know that. But now that you’ve spent the night with me,” he laughed when she gasped in horror, “I know you better. You’re going to go with the flow tonight.”

  Chapter 5

  Roxanne smoothed the dress down, staring at her reflection in the mirror. “It’s too much,” she whispered to Satan, who stared disdainfully from his perch on her dresser. Roxanne had brought the fluffy troublemaker back to her apartment. She’d even stopped by the rental office of her apartment complex to pay the additional pet fee, not wanting to be caught breaking the rules of her lease agreement. But she hadn’t told Abe that. She suspected he might tell her to wing it and let the property management agency find out about her cat.

  Even more enticing, on the drive back to her place with Satan complaining in his carrier, Abe had put the idea of buying her own house into her head.

  “You have the money now. As soon as Nate gets the documents fixed so that you take control of the cat’s inheritance, you’ll have plenty of money to spare.”

  His words had lingered in her thoughts over the past few hours. The idea of owning her own home sounded…decadent. And exciting! She’d lived in this apartment for years, paying the rent every month but never really decorating it because…well, because she hadn’t planned on staying here for so long. So, she had never put her own personality into the space.

  Now, she wondered if there was more to her lack of decor than just not feeling ownership.

  Then something else occurred to her. Turning to look at Satan, she asked the cat, “Why aren’t you hiding under the bed or under the sofa?”

  The black cat only stared back at her. No hissing. No scratching. The feline did lift his paw to examine the bright pink tips, then blink up at her as if to say, “Seriously? Why would you do this to me?” But he didn’t hiss.

  “Are you…” she hesitated to say it out loud, but her heart lurched as she eyed the cat. “Are you just as desperate for a bit of love as I am? Was my mother mean to you too?”

  Satan didn’t move. Since he wasn’t running to hide, Roxanne considered it to be progress and her disgust for the poor guy melted ever so slightly. Plus, the idea that the cat had been abused by her mother tugged at her heart. She didn’t like anyone to abuse animals in any way, for any reason.

  “I’m not going to pet you,” she told him. “But I’m…sort of glad that you’re not running away from me either. It would be very awkward to have another creature living here with me without knowing where you are.”

  No response, but he blinked. Was that significant?

  “Well,” she told the cat awkwardly. “I’m going now. You…do whatever it is that you do.”

  And before she did something really weird, Roxanne left her bedroom. She was just slipping on a pair of heels when the doorbell rang. Abe! He was here! Goodness, was she ready for this?

  She skimmed her hands down the dress again. She’d gone for three quarter length sleeves, not the short sleeves he’d suggested, but this dress was definitely a step in the right direction.

  When she pulled the door open, her breath caught in her throat as she took in Abe’s tall figure clad in a dress shirt and sports jacket. The slacks were dark with a knife-sharp crease and he looked magnificent!

  “You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?’ he asked, stepping into her apartment and taking her into his arms. Before she had a chance to respond, he kissed her…and not one of those sweet, caressing gestures that he’d given her earlier. This was all out passion. This was hot and sexy, with his tongue teasing her lips until she opened up and reciprocated. When she felt his tongue, his lips, and his teeth nipping at her mouth, she shivered and responded instinctively. This was…lust inducing!

  Then he shifted his hands, smoothing down her back to cup her bottom, pressing her hips against his. She gasped and Abe absorbed the sound into his mouth as he deepened the kiss further. Roxanne had no idea kissing could be like this! It was as if he were making love to her mouth while his hands tempted her to…more. More of everything! She wanted to sob with a strange need to…melt into his body. Pressing herself more firmly against him, she shivered as her arms crept up, her fingers tangling in his hair, her fingertips sliding against the skin of his neck. He was hot, she thought distractedly. Hot as in, his skin was really hot…or was that just her?

  Roxanne wasn’t sure anymore!

  Abe pulled away and someone made a whimpering sound. Must have been Chester, Roxanne thought.

  “Roxy,” he groaned, leaning his head down so that it pressed against her forehead. “If we don’t leave now, we’re not going to.”

  With a deep breath, he pulled back and, immediately, Roxanne missed the warmth and the pressure of his body pressed so intimately against hers. But before she could argue, he grabbed the set of keys on the hook by her door, s
tuffed them into her purse, and took her hand to lead her out of the apartment.

  “We need to hurry,” he told her as they walked down the hallway.

  “Are we late? Did you make a reservation?” She glanced at her watch, noting that he was still a few minutes earlier than when he said he would pick her up. So, why were they late?

  “We’re not late,” he growled out, stabbing the button for the elevator.

  “Then why the hurry?” she asked, watching his face, realizing that his lips were pressed together as if he were angry. “Are you mad?”

  His startled gaze looked down at her and he visibly relaxed. “You honestly have no idea, do you?”

  She shook her head, unaware of his eyes moving over the light colored tresses of her hair, but she felt his fingers tighten around hers.

  “We need to put as much space as possible between your bed and our bodies,” he explained in a low whisper. “I only have a limited supply of self-discipline and, when you’re around, it’s severely tested.”

  Roxanne heard the words but didn’t believe them for a long moment. But when he continued to stare down at her, she realized that he was completely serious. He felt…like that? For her?

  “Yes!” he whispered sharply. “I want you, Roxy. I don’t know why you don’t understand that. It’s pretty evident.”

  “Not to me,” she told him, and cleared her throat when her voice cracked.

  “Here,” he pressed her palm against his groin. Well, not really against his groin so much as against his hard, throbbing erection.

  Of course, Roxanne didn’t know if it was impressive or not. She didn’t have a whole lot of experience with erections. None, in fact. Yeah, she’d made it to twenty-six without having sex.

  How could she? With her mother’s warnings ringing in her ears that men would lead her to a fiery death, she’d focused her energy on getting her education, paying for her education, and working on her career. Dating was a non-starter.