Alpha Heat (5 page)

Karl turned and grinned at me, rising to his feet. The third man also rose. He had almond-colored hair he kept on long side and a broad mouth with deep lines running from edges of his lips to the inner corners of his eyes. , like he was always squinting to take a shot or detect a lie.

“Don’t get up…,” I started to say as they all stood.

“Miss Grace Dawson, this is Detective Cale.”

“Call me Dylan, ma’am,” he said with a huge mouth full of oversized teeth. Very white teeth.

I grabbed his proffered hand, afraid he would kiss mine. His accent made me think he’d be a Rhett Butler, but he just shook my wrist up and down like a normal person.

At Karl’s urging we all sat and then chatted while perusing the menu.

This is going to cost me a week’s salary.

“Your money’s no good here, Grace, order whatever you like,” Karl said, as if he had read my mind.

“I’m not going to let you pay for my meal, Mister Norman.” I snapped. Detective Dylan raised his bushy black eyebrows.

“This’s going to be good.” Jack laughed.

I ended up ordering the cheapest chicken dish on the menu and a house white wine. The least expensive plate on the menu, and the damage pushed fifty dollars.

Detective Cale asked a series of questions over the course of an hour, which I must have answered to his satisfaction because he left just before our meals arrived and didn’t take Jack with him in cuffs.

So often it’s dry, but this chicken was fantastic, and melted in my mouth. Karl was charming, and Jack was funny, they rambled on about the weather, fishing, stocks, and sports events. Usually the sort of conversation that would bore me to tears, but these two gorgeous men talking changed that. I had several more servings of wine, which only encouraged my playful mood.

The nice older waitress came by several times, filling water glasses and checking on our satisfaction. A sound system somewhere served up a steady beat of classic rock and roll songs, a few of which I even recognized. After many lighthearted minutes, the plates were cleared and then the mood took a turn toward the serious side. At some point we’d get a bill for all this fun and I’d have to insist on paying my share.

fourteen

“Have another glass of wine, Grace.”

“No thanks. I can think of better ways to spend twenty dollars.”

“I told you, your money’s no good here. This is all being charged to my room.”

I glared at him. “That makes me very uncomfortable.”

Jack got up then. “I’m comfortable letting Karl pay the bill and I’m going to bed. You two don’t hurt each other or I’ll have to call Detective Cale back.”

Karl waved him off with a grin.

I saw my opportunity. “I should go too.”

“I would really appreciate it if you’d stay a bit longer, Grace.”

Nikki Minaj took her turn on the playlist, singing Super Bass.

Every time he said my name, my heart beat faster. “Get out of here, get out of here,” the angel on my shoulder said keeping time with the beat. “He’ll think you’re easy if you stay.”

“Don’t leave here now,” Satana responded, hitting the same rhythm. “Let’s be easy, baby.”

Jack waved and almost ran through the door as the waitress arrived with another house white for me and another vodka Martini for Karl.

“Too late now, don’t be rude and leave on fresh drinks,” my little devil cackled. Saint Monica just blew her bangs from her face.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“What?”

“I’m trying to figure why you are trying to get away.” He bowed his head, then looked at me from behind his brows like my little nephew after he’d spilled grape juice on my carpet. “Most people don’t run away like I have a something wrong with me.”

He pushed a curl back from his eyes.

“At least not until they know me better.”

“You do have something wrong with you, you’re rich and you’re handsome. You’ve got a motorcycle and a worn leather jacket with a winged hammer on the back. I could fall for you hard and I don’t want anything serious now.”

Of course I didn’t say that out loud.

“I’m just tired. I’m still not fully recovered.”

“In the photo on your blog you are standing next to a guy. Is he your boyfriend?”

What photo is he talking about? Then, I remembered. Leslie showed the picture to me that morning. She’d used a picture from the beach demo to illustrate how bad my day had turned out. I didn’t blame her, good drama sells ad space and we needed the money.

I’d been standing next to Pablo as he posed with a paddleboard.

I blushed. “No. He’s a customer. He advertises with our paper.” This is silly. “Why?”

“So no boyfriend?”

“No boyfriend, no husband. I’m making something of myself before I get serious.”

“You’re straight, though? Men seem to scare you.”

This is too intimate a conversation to have in a private room surrounded by wine.

“You scare me.”

The blood rushed to my face. If I was red before, I was a stoplight now.

His eyes got wide for just a second. I looked at my fresh glass of wine. I took a sip.

He reached out and lifted my chin. I caught myself flinching, but looked up at him anyway. “Don’t look down.” He drew his hand back.

“When I can see your eyes, I can tell what you are thinking.”

Oh god I hope not.

“Yes. I can.”

I wanted him to kiss me.

“It’s too soon,” my Angel shrieked.

“Yay, it’s been way to long,” my devil said as she danced around on my shoulder.

I took another sip of wine to distract myself.

“Do you always get so personal, so quickly? I don’t really know you.”

“No. I tend to be impersonal. This is different.” He sucked a martini olive off its bamboo sword .

He’s got great lips.

“Have I offended you?”

“No.”
You’re just driving me crazy.

“But you’re kind of arrogant.”

He bit his olive hard. I smelled his cologne. Sharp, tangy, but not cheap. A bead of sweat ran between the cheeks of my ass.

“I like being in charge.”

“I can tell. You treat everyone like an employee.”

“Not everyone, Grace. Kidnappers, for instance, I treat like vermin.”

He tossed his head back when he said the word, like he was tearing something with his teeth.

An odd word, vermin.

He looked at me, catching my eyes.

“I’m glad I sailed by last night.”

I flushed again.
Yes, you saved me.

“A man like that, a man who rescues people, is a good man,” my angel said.

“Do you have a girl friend?” I blurted. I took an inner step back from my emotions. If I kept responding like that, he’d sense that I cared.

He smiled. “Nope. No girlfriend. Entanglements aren’t really my thing.”

“A relationship is an entanglement to you?”

Six points of light from the chandelier sparkled in his eyes as Karl looked at the ceiling. “Aren’t they to you?”

He looked back and ran his finger along his cheekbone. I wanted to follow his finger with my lips.

“Tell me about your childhood. What’s your father like?”

Great, he’s getting even more personal. I took another sip of wine. Got to make this glass last so he doesn’t order me another.

I mentioned already that I’m no wine connoisseur. I buy the one with the best looking label under ten dollars. This one had an aftertaste of something that reminded me of an oak forest. With a few bay trees growing amongst them. I heard the scream of a hawk.

“I was adopted. I never knew my birth parents.”

“What about your adopted parents?”

I didn’t adopt them. So my rich hero can make mistakes.

“They possessed everything a middle class family should have. Except kids. So they picked up my brother and me. More to fit with their friends than anything like love.”

I never called them mom and dad, and they never called me kiddo or pumpkin head.

Just Grace. Grace is the name I came with. Tom once told me that they’d tried to rename me Mary, but every time they called me that I’d screamed.

Karl reached over the table and took hold of the napkin I clenched. He tugged. I let it go. He replaced the cloth with his hand and looked me in the eye.

Is he going to kiss me?
He ran his other hand through his hair, parting the thick strands like surfers on golden waves.

Will I let him?

He looked into my eyes.

Oh yes I will.

“Grace, I’m sorry about your parents.” Shit. What I took for attraction was something else instead. No one had ever pitied me that knew of. Not too my face.

“I got over it a long time ago,” I snapped.

Then I stood up to leave. Again. “But why, the night is just getting interesting,” my devil wailed.

I opened my purse and grabbed a wad of twenties. I tossed them on the table.

“Thanks, Karl, but I really have to work tomorrow.”

He looked at the money like someone just killed a puppy.

“Keep your money.”

“I told you, I’m not comfortable with that. I pull my own weight. Thank you for rescuing me.”

I ran my hands through my curls. They didn’t get any straighter, but the gesture relaxed me.

“Tell Jack I said good night, and I’m glad he’s not going to jail.”

Just as I was grabbing for the door, a new song started. Though it sounded like classical music, all violins and pianos, I recognized the tune as something from the Stones. The version playing did not have words but I could hear them in my head as I identified the melody.
Sympathy for the Devil.

“Wait.” A simple four letter word.

This was it. Run now or turn and never leave this man.

At least not under my own power.

I turned.

Something dripped down my leg.

Karl stood and walked around the table toward me. His eyes caught mine and he held my stare as he moved in. He strode so smoothly all I could think of was moonlight. Like I was being stalked by radiance itself.

His face was neutral: not smiling, not frowning. His eyes spoke his thoughts though, and they told me how much he wanted me. His gaze traveled along my curves as I turned the rest of the way toward him. I put my hands up, into my hair and thrust my chest out.

My insistent nipples poked hard against the lace of my bra.

“Take that off.” His voice was firm, yet soft. A command, not a request.

I untied the knot behind my neck that held my dress up. I yanked on the strings and released the bow, my thin green shield swirled to my waist, showing my lighter green lacy bra. I flicked my hip and the cloth flowed the rest of the way to pool itself around my feet, revealing my lack of anything else covering my sex.

He moved forward and cupped my left breast. My boob fit his hand well. His fingers grasped me and I swooned backwards, lips open. He gave me a light kiss, flicking his tongue inside my mouth. He grasped my nipple, pinching. An electric pain shot from my chest and I whimpered, “Yes.”

“Is this OK?” He backed off, looking at me. His mouth set in a line, like he was daring me to take what he wanted to give me, but his eyes showed concern for me.

“I can say no?”

“You can always say no, Grace. Just say stop. I’ll stop right away. Whatever I’m doing.”

He pinched me harder.

“Does this feel good? Are you saying stop?”

“Yes.” He released me. “No, I mean not no, yes, it feels good. Keep….doing that.”

“This?” He pinched again, even harder.

“Yes. That’s…good.” That angel voice in my head said it shouldn’t be, but I was listening to my sweet devil at the time and she’d pressed her own breasts forward, cooing, “Take me.”

I did the same.

He reached up and grasped my wrists, holding them above my head. He made me feel crazy, I never acted like that. I shouldn’t have wanted him to hold me, to kiss me. To pinch me.

I shut my mouth on a moan.

He kept my wrists pinned with one hand and ran his other hand down my back, his nails touching me just enough to raise shivers, not of pain but of a sensation close to it.

He ran his fingers along my bottom, grabbing the skin, kneading like I was made of bread.

I needed him to touch me harder, and I pressed into him, gasping.

“You’re trembling.” He whispered in my ear, his breath crashing on my eardrum like waves on the beach.

“I know.” He kissed me there. I struggled against him, trying to lower my hands to caress his head and pull him closer.

“No.” He said the word like he spoke to a pet. His tone made me gasp. I don’t like it at all when someone gives me orders, but I didn’t mind when he did.