Nine
Rick slammed the door
shut with his foot, closing them inside the cool, quiet darkness.
The shimmery moonlight shone through the lone window at the back
side of the garage, casting murky shadows across the old blue
pickup. Lori Lee could barely make out Rick’s facial features, but
she had no trouble feeling him. He pressed her against the wall,
his big body hard, straining and rigidly intent. Lifting her arms,
he manacled both of her wrists in his huge hand and held them over
her head.
Unable to embrace him, to touch his
chest or shoulders, she whimpered as sensual need throbbed in her
feminine core. She leaned into him, rubbing herself intimately
against him.
“You want it as bad as I do, don’t you,
honey?” He mouthed the words against her neck. “These weeks of
celibacy have made you crazy, haven’t they? As crazy as I
am.”
“Rick. Rick. Please.” She had known
love and desire and sexual pleasure before, but nothing had
prepared her for the fiery, raging hunger Rick Warrick ignited in
her every time he looked at her. She had never known this aching
need to have a man buried deep inside her, had never experienced
the overwhelming kind of lust that ruled her mind and
body.
While he held her wrists captive, he
slid his other hand behind her back and jerked down the zipper of
her black crepe dress. He unhooked her black lace bra. She leaned
the back of her head against the wall and gasped for air as he
released her hands, dragged her dress to her hips and yanked her
bra down her arms, then grabbed her arms again. He tossed her bra
onto the floor, then lowered his mouth and laved one puckered
nipple. She moaned. Rick raised his head.
“Your breasts cry out for my mouth,
baby. You love it when I do this—” he licked one nipple and then
the other “—don’t you?” He savored the mewing sounds she made as he
continued tormenting her, taking turns licking and sucking until
she writhed against him, lifting one of her legs and rubbing it up
and down his.
He bumped his sex into her aching
femininity, grinding into her with hard, circular pressure. “Is
this what you want?”
She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe.
She could only feel.
“Answer me, baby,” he demanded, his
voice husky with sexual need. “Tell me you like my mouth on your
breasts. Tell me you want me inside you, filling you
completely.”
“Rick. Oh, Rick, yes,” she whispered,
her body trembling as painful need urged her to fight his hold on
her wrists.
When she struggled to free herself,
wanting to grab him and hold him close, to run her hands over his
chest and rip his clothes from his body, Rick tightened his grip,
refusing to release her.
“Do you want to touch me?” he asked her
teasingly. “Tell me what I want to hear and I’ll let you touch
me.”
“I—I like your mouth...” Shuddering
with aching pleasure, she cried out when he pinched her nipple. “I
like your mouth on my breasts.” The words rushed out of her. “And I
want you. Oh, Rick, I want you so.”
He tugged her dress and lace half-slip
down and over her hips. The soft crepe and slinky silk pooled
around her ankles like obsidian clouds.
He cupped her intimately, then slipped
a couple of fingers inside her black lace bikini panties. She
gasped the moment his fingers made contact with her throbbing
little nub.
“You’re right on the edge, aren’t you,
baby? It wouldn’t take much to send you over.” He inserted his
fingers into her damp, hot body. She squeezed her legs shut,
trapping his hand between her thighs. “Tell me exactly what you
want. Tell me what it’s going to take to put you out of your
misery.”
“Make love to me,” she pleaded. “I want
you inside me. I ache for you.”
The moment he released her wrists, he
scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the truck. She kicked
off her black leather heels, then grabbed his face, spearing her
fingers into his hair, kissing him again and again. Rick unhitched
the truck’s tailgate and lifted Lori Lee up on the edge. She
shivered when her hips and legs made contact with the cold
metal.
Clenching fistfuls of his tailored blue
shirt, she jerked him forward, then she popped several buttons off
his shirt as she ripped it open. Spreading her hands over his
chest, she sighed, loving the feel of his hair-covered
muscles.
“You want me bad, don’t you, baby?”
Rick unbuckled his belt, unzipped his khaki slacks and hurriedly
pulled them down his legs. When they caught on his shoes, he yanked
his dress slippers and socks off along with his pants. “Don’t
worry, I’m here. And I’m going to give you what you need. What we
both need.”
He tore her sheer panty hose in his
haste to remove them and her lace panties. Her trembling hands
yanked his briefs down over his hips. Hot, moist and naked, Lori
Lee opened her legs in an invitation he could not refuse. He lifted
her hips as he stepped between her legs and pulled her to the very
edge of the truck’s unfolded tailgate.
“You’re mine,” he said when he gripped
her buttocks and thrust hard and heavy into her, burying himself
deeply.
“I’m yours...yours...yours...” She
clung to him, accepting his wild lunges, loving the feel of Rick
filling her completely.
Their coupling was fast and furious.
Rick’s big, hairy body dampened with sweat as he drove into her
repeatedly, bumping her hips up and down and bouncing her breasts.
Lori Lee sheathed him like a glove, clutching him with hot, wet
fury.
“Good. So good, baby,” he told her
seconds before he felt her tighten around him. Her body shook as
the power and pleasure of satisfaction burst inside
her.
Moaning with intense pleasure, Lori Lee
dug her nails into his buttocks, then whispered passionate, earthy
words of inducement. The feel of her quivering, encompassing heat
and the insistence of her seductive, verbal demands hurled him into
oblivion. His release hit him with violent force. Giving out a
long, guttural cry of fulfillment, he buried his face between her
breasts. She lifted his chin and looked at him
adoringly.
“I love you, Rick.”
Groaning, he shut his eyes. “Oh, Lori
Lee.”
He had wanted her for as long as he
could remember, had fantasized about making love to her, of
claiming her as his own. But never in his wildest dreams had he
ever thought she would love him.
He took her mouth savagely,
possessively, and felt himself growing hard once again. “I can’t
get enough of you, baby.”
Reluctantly pulling out of her body,
Rick lifted her in his arms and carried her around the truck, then
opened the driver’s door and set her on the seat. He climbed in
beside her and pulled her into his arms. “No more celibacy,” he
told her. “From now on, while we’re dating, we’re going to make
love. Every day. Even if I have to come to you in the middle of the
night.”
“Every day,” she agreed, then wrapped
her arms around his neck and dragged him down on top of her as she
lay on the seat.
He hadn’t told her that he loved her,
too. She had so desperately wanted to hear him say the words.
Perhaps he didn’t love her. Or maybe he just wasn’t ready to tell
her. She could be patient. She could wait. She knew that he would
never lie to her, never pretend, never profess to love her if he
didn’t.
“Lori Lee, honey, are you sure you
really love me?” he asked, his sex pulsating against her belly.
“Sometimes people confuse good sex with love.”
“I love you,” she said. “I love the
sex, too, of course.” She eased her thighs apart slowly and lifted
her hips.
“Dammit, woman, you’re driving me
crazy.” He plunged into her, gasping with pleasure as her body
welcomed him.
“It’s all right if you can’t tell me
that you love me,” she whispered in his ear as he once again
claimed her with pure, raw passion. “This is enough. For
now.”
Clutching the telephone in his hand,
Rick stared at it as if it were an alien being. Then, when his mind
absorbed the reality of his recently completed conversation, he
slammed the receiver onto the wall base.
“Dammit! Dammit!” He kicked his booted
toe against the doorpost and beat his fist against the closed
kitchen door.
“You didn’t get the loan.” Eve dropped
the knife she was using to spread mayonnaise on their sandwiches,
wiped her hands on the towel draped across her shoulder and rushed
over to her brother.
When she tried to put her hand on his
shoulder, he jerked away, turning his back to her. He didn’t want
Eve to see him on the verge of crying. Before he faced her, he had
to get his emotions under control. He was so angry that it wouldn’t
take much to push him over the edge. If he could get his hands
around Mara Royce’s short, plump neck right now, he’d strangle the
life out of her.
“I’m sorry, Eve. Just give me a minute.
Okay?”
Taking several steps away from Rick,
she stood in the middle of her immaculately clean
white-and-hunter-green kitchen. “What did Mr. Percy say? Did he
give you a reason for turning down your loan
application?”
Taking a deep, semicalming breath, Rick
grunted. “Oh, yeah, he gave me a reason all right. It seems my
application was given special consideration. Colbert Federal’s
president reviewed it, and Mr. John Hobart himself decided I wasn’t
a good risk.”
“John Hobart,” Eve repeated the name.
“But that’s—”
“Mara Royce’s father.” Rick turned to
face his sister.
“Oh, that horrible woman. She actually
involved her father in her petty little scheme for revenge.” Eve
threw up her hands in a sign of disgust. “There has to be something
we can do. We’ll hire a lawyer. We’ll sue Colbert Federal. We’ll
sue Mara Royce!”
“If I thought it would do any good, I’d
go to Birmingham and hire the best attorney I could afford,” Rick
said. “But there would be no way to prove a thing, little sister.
It’s Hobart’s bank, and if he says I’m a poor loan risk, then my
bet is he can find a way to back up his claim.”
“Colbert Federal isn’t the only bank
around here,” Eve reminded him. “You can apply for a loan at
another bank.”
“Yeah, well, Mr. Percy advised me
against doing that.”
“What do you mean? Did he threaten
you?”
“Not exactly.” Rick walked over and put
his arm around Eve’s shoulder. “He simply commented that he was
sure I’d find similar problems with other local banks, and that Mr.
Hobart suggested that before I tried reapplying anywhere else I
might want to get advice from a lawyer. He recommended Powell
Goodman.”
“It’s a conspiracy. That’s what it is.
Mara Royce and Powell Goodman are out to get you.” Eve hugged Rick,
then pulled away from him. “Well, they’re not going to get away
with it.”
“Look, sis, I’ve known all along that
it wasn’t going to be easy to make a place for me and Darcie in
Tuscumbia. I was aware of the risk I was taking, counting on the
people around here to give me a chance.”
“Most people have given you a chance,”
Eve told him. “Powell Goodman and Mara Royce are a small
minority.”
“Yeah, but they’re a powerful,
dangerous minority.”
His gut instincts had told him that
something would mess up his dreams, now that they were within his
reach. He’d been too damn lucky. His sister and brother-in-law had
bent over backward to help him, even giving him and Darcie a place
to live. And by some miracle, Lori Lee Guy had fallen in love with
him—something he’d never dreamed possible. To make things perfect,
Darcie and Lori Lee adored each other. He had figured that, once
this loan went through and he’d bought Bobo’s business, he just
might propose to Lori Lee.
Now what the hell was he going to do?
Even at best, he had little to offer her. Just himself and Darcie.
And his solemn vow to be a good, faithful husband until the day he
died. But now, he couldn’t go to her, a complete failure, and ask
her to endure the town’s ridicule.
“Rick, don’t give up. There’s a
solution to this problem, if we can just find it.”
“Yeah, sure,” Rick said. “I don’t know
how I’m going to tell Lori Lee. She’s suffered enough in the past
few days because of me. After that stunt Mara Royce pulled at the
recital Saturday night, I wouldn’t have blamed Lori Lee if she’d
never wanted to see me again.”
“When are you going to get it through
that thick head of yours that Lori Lee Guy loves you?”
“I can’t figure out why. What the hell
does a woman like that see in a guy like me?”
“I’ve asked myself that same question,”
Eve said jokingly. “Why don’t you ask Lori Lee?”
“What I should do, for her sake, is
break off things right now.” Rick couldn’t bear the thought of
losing Lori Lee, but he didn’t have the right to drag her down with
him, to ask her to share her life with a guy who didn’t have a
prayer of making it in this town.
“You’re talking as if everything is
hopeless when it’s not.” Eve returned to the task of preparing
sandwiches, quickly putting together two ham-and-cheese
combinations. “Sit down and eat and we’ll discuss the
possibilities.”
“Just put mine on a paper towel and
I’ll eat it on the way back to work. My lunch hour is nearly
over.”
Eve tore off a paper towel, wrapped it
around one of the sandwiches and handed it to Rick. “Here. And
don’t do anything stupid, like breaking up with Lori Lee out of
some misplaced sense of chivalry. I promise you that I’ll find a
way for you to get a loan.”
Rick grabbed the sandwich in one hand,
then cupped his sister’s chin, lifting her face for a quick kiss.
“My little miracle worker.”
“It won’t take a miracle.”
“Yes, it will, sis. Happiness just
isn’t in the cards for a guy like me. I wasn’t meant to be one of
the lucky ones. The first time life kicked me on my rear, I should
have stayed down instead of clawing my way back up time and time
again.”
“Oh, Rick,” Eve said as Rick closed the
door behind him. “It breaks my heart to hear you talk like
that....”
Lori Lee answered the Sparkle and Shine
shop’s telephone on the second ring, identifying both herself and
her business.
“Lori Lee, this is Eve
Nelson.”
“Hello, Eve. How are you?”
“I’ve been better.”
Lori Lee’s stomach tightened into
knots. Something was wrong with Rick. Why else would Eve be calling
her?
“What’s the matter?” Lori Lee
asked.
“Colbert Federal turned down Rick’s
loan,” Eve said.
“Oh, no. I suppose he’s angry and hurt
and roaring like a wounded lion.”
“You know our Rick.”
Aunt Birdie, who was removing the
Easter display from the show window, backed her ample behind out of
the window and set her wide feet on the floor. “What happened to
Rick?”
Lori Lee covered the phone’s mouthpiece
with her hand. “Rick didn’t get his loan from Colbert Federal,” she
told her aunt.
“Look, Lori Lee,” Eve said. “Rick’s
ready to give up, to call it quits with you and forget all of his
dreams.”
“There’s more to this than you’ve told
me, isn’t there?” Lori Lee asked.
“Mr. Percy at Colbert Federal advised
Rick not to seek a loan locally. It seems Mara Royce persuaded her
father to reject Rick’s loan application and Mr. Hobart and Powell
Goodman have put the word out that Rick’s a poor
risk.”
Lori Lee saw red. Literally. She shut
her eyes tightly, allowing the anger inside her to build until she
was on the verge of exploding. The sheer force of her rage rendered
her momentarily speechless. Tears gathered in her eyes as pain
consumed her.
“What on earth’s wrong?” Birdie grabbed
the phone away from Lori Lee, then clasped her niece’s shoulder and
gave her a sound shake. She placed the receiver to her ear. “Eve,
Birdie Pierpont here. Lori Lee’s so upset she’s crying. Tell me
what happened, and don’t leave out a thing.” Birdie listened while
Eve explained the entire situation.
Lori Lee rubbed her throbbing temples
as she tried to calm herself. She was not going to allow Mara Royce
or Powell Goodman to hurt Rick. They had no right to take their
jealous fury out on him, when she was the object of their
irrational feelings. If it hadn’t been for her, this wouldn’t have
happened. If Rick lost his dream, it would be her
fault.
“Well, don’t you worry, Eve,” Birdie
said. “I can take care of this problem with one phone call. A great
deal of my money is scattered around several local banks, most of
it in Tuscumbia Savings and Loan where my nephew, Guy Stephenson,
works. You leave everything to me. I’ll see to it that Rick gets
his loan.”
While Aunt Birdie continued chatting
with Eve, Lori Lee saw Rick’s old truck pull up in front of the
shop. “Get off the phone, Aunt Birdie. Rick’s here. He just parked.
Now he’s getting out.”
“Calm down, sugar,” Birdie told her
niece as she held her hand over the phone’s mouthpiece. “I’ve got
things under control. You take Rick on back to the storeroom and
convince him that Powell Goodman and John Hobart have no influence
whatsoever over at Tuscumbia Savings and Loan. Talk him into
applying for a loan there today.”
“Today?”
“If he applies today, he’ll get his
loan tomorrow.” Birdie uncovered the telephone mouthpiece and told
Eve that she’d keep her posted, said goodbye and hung up the
receiver.
“Oh, Aunt Birdie, you’re wonderful!”
Lori Lee wiped the tears from her eyes.
Rick opened the front door and walked
in, a scowling look on his face that proclaimed to one and all that
his life wasn’t worth living.
“We’ve got to talk, honey.” He grabbed
Lori Lee’s arm. “Somewhere private.”
“Come on back to the storage room.”
Lori Lee glanced at her aunt. “Take care of things out here for me,
please.”
“I’ll be glad to take care of
everything,” Birdie assured her.
Lori Lee led Rick into the storage
room, closed the door and wrapped her arms around him. Immediately,
he prized her arms off him and held her shoulders, keeping their
bodies from touching.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Things aren’t going to work out,” he
said. “I was a fool to think you and I had a prayer of making
things work. I’m a born loser. You’re a golden princess. If I don’t
let you go now, I’m going to drag you down into the mire with
me.”
“You heard from Colbert Federal about
your loan, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, honey, it isn’t good
news.”
“Colbert Federal isn’t the only local
bank.”
“I’ve already had this conversation.
with my sister.”
“Come over here and sit down, and tell
me everything.” She clasped his hand in hers and coaxed him over to
the small table and chairs in the corner of the storage
room.
He told her every detail of his
conversation with Mr. Percy from Colbert Federal, leaving out
nothing; She damned Mara Royce and Powell Goodman for the hateful,
jealous-hearted creatures they were, then she told him that she
wasn’t going to allow anyone to ruin his dreams and destroy his and
Darcie’s future.
“There’s one bank in town where neither
Mara’s daddy nor Powell have any influence,” she told him.
“Tuscumbia Savings and Loan. I think you should go over there right
now and put in a loan application.”
“Didn’t you listen to a thing I said?
Nobody in this town is going to loan me a dime.”
“I’m sure Tuscumbia Savings and Loan
will consider your application.” When he shook his head and
frowned, she reached out and laid her hand over his where it rested
atop the table. “What have you got to lose? Give it a try. Do it
for me. After all, I have a big stake in your success. If you can’t
buy Bobo’s business, you’re going to walk out of my life, and I
can’t let that happen.”
Turning her hand over, he traced the
faint lines in her palm. “You’re a hopeless optimist,
honey.”
“And you’re a cynic and a pessimist,
and I love you.”
“Did I happen to mention that you’re
also crazy?” A hint of a smile twitched his lips.
“Rick, we can’t let this one setback
destroy what we’re trying to build together. A good life for you
and Darcie, and maybe even a future for you and me.”
“I’m never going to be good enough for
you, honey. No matter what.” Tugging on her hand, he urged her up
and onto her feet, then drew her slowly into his arms. “You’re
perfect. Absolutely perfect. You can give a man everything, make
all his dreams come true. You should love a man who can give you
everything in return.”
“Rick, I’m not perfect. There are
things about me that you don’t know, things I should have told
you.”
“I know everything about you that I
need to know.” He cupped her hips, easing her closer and closer,
until their bodies touched intimately.
“You’ve told me about your shortcomings
over and over again,” Lori Lee said. “You keep telling me that I
shouldn’t love you because you’re too much this and not enough
that. How do I convince you that I love you despite your
shortcomings? I can live with your imperfections, Rick. Can you
live with mine?”
“You don’t have any imperfections.” He
rubbed his cheek against hers. “You’re the most perfect woman on
earth.”
“What if I did have a flaw, an
imperfection that kept me from being all that you want me to
be?”
“But you are all that I want you to be.
No man could ask for more.”
She knew she should tell him about her
miscarriages, about her operation and her subsequent infertility.
He had every right to know that his perfect woman was terribly
flawed. Her perfect body wasn’t capable of performing a woman’s
most basic function. Conceiving, carrying and giving birth to a
child.
And she would
tell him. Once he’d applied for and received a loan from Tuscumbia
Savings and Loan, she would be completely honest with him. Before
he asked her to marry him. Before he committed himself. She didn’t
want Rick unless he truly loved her, completely and
unconditionally, as she loved him. And she realized that once he
discovered just how imperfect she was, he might not even want
her.